Update from the Executive Director
Winter 2009

News from Annual Gala Dinner

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for continuing to support our work. We are especially grateful to those of you who attended our Annual Scholarship Gala Dinner on October 9th, and helped us applaud our wonderful scholarship awardees and their families. The dinner was truly inspirational as we heard from Senator Gloria Romero, one of the fiercest advocates we have in Sacramento, talk about the vital importance of education for our community. We were also pleased to honor Carmen Castellano with the Madrina award and Victoria Alvarado with the Legacy award. Both of them have been tireless activists and advocates in our community. And how inspiring it was to recognize Lisa Cisneros with the Emerging Leadership Award for her work on behalf of LGBT rural communities, and to hear from some our amazing scholarship recipients, like Lucha Diaz, Aidin Castillo, Jill Contreras and Laurangelica Lechon. They truly represent the heart and soul of Chicana Latina Foundation

Holiday Wishes

In this holiday season, we want to thank and wish you wonderful holidays with your loved ones. This past year has been difficult as our communities continue to face foreclosures, unemployment, violence and discrimination. But we are resilient and remain committed to working for positive social change. Our scholarship recipients fill us with joy and hope as they are determined to succeed academically and become the future enlightened leaders we need them to be.

Our Mission

CLF's mission, to empower Latinas through personal professional and educational advancement, resonates ever more loudly, after 32 years, especially as we see the demographic explosion of Latinas in K-12, in small businesses and in every industry and sector in society.

The Work Ahead

We see the great gains that Latinas have made over the years, exemplified by the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and the accomplishments of national leaders like Department of Labor head Hilda Solis. Unfortunately, we also 'excel' in other areas, like the high school drop out rate in which we represent over half of all drop outs, or the teen pregnancy rate where our young Latinas represent the highest percentage of teen pregnancies.

We have a lot of work ahead of us to turn these statistics around, and we need your help now more than ever. The future of California, indeed the country, is intricately tied to the academic and social advancement of the Latino community.

Support the Chicana/Latina Foundation

Join us as we work to increase the number of middle school Latina/o students who will succeed in graduating from high school and to increase the number of Latina college students graduating from college. Your donations are very crucial as our students face the cuts in education and financial resources available to them.

We thank all of our loyal corporate and foundation sponsors, our education and community partners and individual donors who continue to make our work possible.

We could not do it without all of you.