Helios Ready Now Yuma Scholarship: Changing lives – one scholarship at a time
Isabella Gonzalez always knew she’d attend college. She just didn’t know how she’d pay for it.
Finances became tight in the Gonzalez household when she was a senior at Yuma’s Gila Ridge High School. She worried her passion to pursue higher education would be a financial burden on the family.
So, Isabella was overjoyed last year when she was presented with a $60,000 Helios Ready Now Yuma Scholarship, made possible by Helios Education Foundation.
“I was in choir class at the time, and my aunt was the vice principal at my high school, so when she walked in, I was very surprised,” Isabella said. “Then I see balloons and the big check – and I see my name on it. My heart absolutely dropped. I thought, ‘Wow, I really did it. I'm going to college.’”
Launched in 2019, Helios annually awards six graduating seniors in the Yuma Union High School District with full-tuition scholarships for four years of undergraduate study, helping students have the financial resources to achieve their dreams of a postsecondary education.
Isabella, now 19, is a freshman studying nursing at Northern Arizona University, maintaining a 4.0 GPA. She plans to pursue a career in neonatal nursing. She recalls at the time of the scholarship award that she shared an emotional phone call with her mom.
“I was almost reassuring her that she doesn't have to worry about me, that I'll be taken care of,” she recalled. “I can go to college because of this now. I don't have to worry.”
The economic benefits of education beyond high school are undeniable, underscored by the recent report, Billions to Gain, published by Helios in partnership with Education Forward Arizona.
The report illustrates that Arizonans who enroll in college can expect financial gains that include lifetime increased earnings, better job security, and more economic opportunity. On average, lifetime earnings for individuals with bachelor’s degrees are more than two times greater than for those with a high school diploma.
Beyond the benefits to themselves and their families, college-going individuals drive economic and social gains for communities and the state in the form of improved health, reduced crime, reduced welfare spending, and increased workforce productivity. Increasing the college-going rate in Arizona by 20 percent would yield an additional $5 billion in economic and social benefits.
For Isabella, a college-going attitude was instilled in her at a very young age. Both parents went to college, but her grandparents emigrated from Mexico and did not have those opportunities.
“They always told me ‘This is going to be a great opportunity for you. You should always try your hardest in school,’” Isabella said. “They told me ‘Do as much as you can, jump into every opportunity and do the things we couldn't do.’”
Isabella credits her guidance counselor, Sonia Rebek, for connecting her with the Helios Ready Now Yuma Scholarship and supporting her though personal challenges because of her family’s financial strains. As for the scholarship, Isabella said it’s a game-changer for her college journey.
“It has helped me immensely because I've been able to focus purely on my studies. I didn't have to pick up a job here,” she said. “Especially with the major that I want to pursue, it's given me so much more time to be able to go to extra tutoring and extra study sessions and really get into this degree.”