10 WCC Students Win New Pepsico Foundation $25,000 Scholarship

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY — Ten Westchester Community College students are among the 25 inaugural recipients of the Pepsico Foundation's new scholarship program to support Black and Hispanic community college students who are moving on to 4-year institutions.

WCC is only one of three community colleges in the U.S. where the foundation is offering the new S.M.I.L.E. scholarship.

The Success Matters In Life and Education program offers each student $25,000 as well as professional mentorship with a PepsiCo employee and other wrap-around services, foundation officials said. Preference is given to students in business or STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields.

The program is designed to address historical barriers that have prevented Black and Hispanic students from achieving their educational goals and career success. Foundation and WCC officials said that Black and Hispanic students are 50 percent less likely to earn a bachelor's degree in a STEM field than are White students, and Black and Hispanic representation in STEM fields is 50 percent lower than the overall rates of US working professionals.

The 10 students from WCC in the inaugural group are headed to a range of universities from Columbia to Syracuse:

• Juliette Pacheco (Bronx): Westchester Community College → City University of New York: Lehman College
• Thabo Ngwenya (Eastchester): Westchester Community College → Columbia University
• Sarah Murdock (Tuckahoe): Westchester Community College → High Point University
• Susan Sanchez (Ossining): Westchester Community College → City University of New York: City College
• Tiffany Patton (Irvington): Westchester Community College → Columbia College
• Pamela Morales (Bronx): Westchester Community College → New York University
• Aniya Matthews (Hastings on Hudson): Westchester Community College → Syracuse University
• James Gibbs (White Plains): Westchester Community College → Fordham University
• Jorge Zhiminaicela (Ossining, NY): Westchester Community College → SUNY Polytechnic Institute
• Hugo Bravo (Yonkers, NY): Westchester Community College → Baruch College

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A Bronx resident, Pachecco chose Westchester Community College over local CUNY institutions.

"I chose to attend WCC after a very good friend of mine spoke so highly of the support she received from the staff," she told Patch. "After my first experience visiting the campus I felt the exact support she spoke of, and I knew that was the place I needed to earn my degree."