{"id":50955,"date":"2022-09-21T14:16:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T18:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/?p=50955"},"modified":"2024-07-25T14:29:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T18:29:32","slug":"50955","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/2022\/09\/50955\/","title":{"rendered":"New Name for Scholarship Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

En <\/span>Beca multicultural<\/span><\/a> is the new name for the former Students of Color Scholarship.\u00a0 The endowed fund provides financial assistance to qualifying students to diversify and enrich the school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want our student body to better reflect the cultures and traditions of our city and the surrounding area, \u201csays Paul Leaman<\/a>, head of school. \u201cWe also want to increase access to an EMS education, and to enrich the EMS experience for students of all backgrounds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

History<\/strong>
\nEn el 1990s, a donor provided seed money to create a fund to support Laotian immigrant students from a local Mennonite church.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the death of George Floyd, EMS<\/span> sought more tangible ways to address racial inequities and barriers in the culture at large and at EMS in particular. An unsolicited gift\u00a0 intended to support students of color, prompted review of the Laotian student fund and a renaming of the fund.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Students of Color Scholarship Fund was named with input from a variety of people.. With promotion of the new fund, additional gifts came to the school and the fund doubled.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the 2021-22 school year, Marsha Thomas, admissions counselor, heard feedback from some in our community that the term \u201ccolor\u201d harkened back to the pain of the pre-Civil Rights era. Subsequent conversations and surveys to seek more feedback in the fall of 2022 included:<\/span><\/p>\n