Rhina Serrano-Zetino always knew she wanted to go to college.
“It was my biggest dream as a little girl,” she said. “I always wanted to do something more to make my parents proud.”
But being the first generation in her family to pursue higher education, she knew she might have some hurdles to overcome.
“There’s a lot of nerves knowing that nobody in my family has gone through this,” Serrano-Zetino said.
She then began working with Miguel Banuelos-Garcia, a Denver Scholarship Foundation college advisor at John F. Kennedy High School.
The two discussed Serrano-Zetino’s ideals, as well as her professional and academic ambitions. Serrano-Zetino heard about the Denver Scholarship Foundation and the opportunities it provides to aspiring college students like herself through these talks.
“We’re helping them paint that window that they see their lives outside of,” Banuelos-Garcia said. “We give them that foundation to understand how to build their lives around it.”
The Denver Scholarship Foundation aims to make college possible for all Denver Public Schools students, supporting them with tools and resources. It is known as the “financial aid experts in Denver,” said Diana Madriz, the foundation’s assistant director of college access. It “is a liaison between talent and resources and opportunities.”
According to the Education Data Initiative, 1.7 million scholarships are awarded nationally each year, yet only 7% of college students receive them. The Institute of Education Sciences reports that approximately 19 million students in the United States sought higher education in the fall of 2021 for the 2021-2022 academic year. During the same school year, the Denver Scholarship Foundation provided approximately $5 million in scholarships to 1,871 DPS students.
Furthermore, Madriz reported that Denver Scholarship Foundation scholarship awards have increased and are now back to pre-COVID levels. She also stated that this school year, the organization provided a “record number” of scholarships to almost 2,070 DPS graduates.
“More students desire to pursue a college education,” Madriz said. “This is mostly due to the direct correlation between postsecondary education and successful employment with higher-paying positions, job security and social mobility.”
While the Denver Scholarship Foundation is best recognized for its scholarship grants, which have totaled $57.6 million to 8,941 DPS graduates since the fall of 2007, the foundation also has three major activities. They are: need-based scholarships to any institution in Colorado, for which every DPS graduate is qualified; access to resources such as financial aid advice; and guaranteeing the student’s success in college, career, and life.
Fifteen DPS high schools feature a Future Center where students and families can meet one-on-one with one of the foundation’s college consultants. Students who attend a DPS school without a center can speak with their school’s college advisors about available resources.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2024-2025 academic year opened in December, and the foundation wants to make sure that all DPS students and families are aware of the options that are available to them. The foundation also provides resources for the Colorado Application for State Financial Aid (CASFA), which enables Colorado public colleges to award financial aid to students who do not qualify for federal student aid but meet Colorado residency requirements, including undocumented students.
“Having access to financial aid is the difference between being able to enroll in college or not,” Madriz said. “It’s life changing.”
And it’s important for students and their families to know that applying for financial aid does not commit them to anything — they do not have to accept any financial aid offered to them, Madriz added.
“It just sets them up for options, or expands their options,” she said.
The foundation provides FAFSA assistance with application preparation and submission. This includes assisting with the completion of the essential papers, developing a timetable to ensure all deadlines are reached, creating a studentaid.gov account, and addressing any questions concerning financial aid. The foundation also works with a student’s family to help them understand the financial aid process, as well as what it means for their child to attend college and what to expect.
Madriz believes that a first-generation student attending college can start generational change in their family.
“College attainment changes the outlook for families because it creates a new standard for what’s possible,” Madriz said. “It is more important than ever for students and families to be equipped with the correct information, tools and hands-on support to submit financial aid applications and maximize their postsecondary opportunities.”
Serrano-Zetino will graduate high school in spring. She is the class president, a member of the National Honor Society, a Key Club member, and co-founder of John F. Kennedy High School’s new speech and debate team.
She intends to attend Colorado State University this autumn to study international business. Serrano-Zetino’s ultimate aim is to become a lawyer, but she chose business for her undergraduate degree because she believes it will provide her with numerous professional and employment prospects when she attends law school and pursues her juris doctorate.
“Some people think that they can’t afford it (college), so why should they even try,” Serrano-Zetino said. “But it’s misunderstood that people do have resources.”
Denver Scholarship Foundation’s upcoming Future Center workshops
All take place from 3-7 p.m.
- South High School: Jan. 23
- George Washington High School: Jan. 24
- Northeast Early College: Jan. 25
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early College: Jan. 30
- Northfield High School: Jan. 31
- North High School: Feb. 1 Montbello High School: Feb. 6
- Kennedy High School: Feb. 7
- Bruce Randolph High School: Feb. 8
- CEC Early College: Feb. 8
- West High School: Feb. 12
- Manual High School: Feb. 13
- Thomas Jefferson High School: Feb. 15
- East High School: Feb. 21
- Abraham Lincoln High School: Feb. 22
If your school is not listed, the Denver Scholarship Foundation, 789 Sherman St., Suite 610, will have a community workshop from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on March 9. This session is open to any senior and their family in the metro region (including high schools other than Denver Public Schools).
To learn more about the Denver Scholarship Foundation, visit denverscholarship.org.
