Featured
Launched this year, the program provides Oakland Unified School District students — and other Pell Grant-eligible students from the city — with full four-year scholarships that cover tuition, housing, food and fees.
OAKLAND, Calif. — Nyari Wright’s plan was to go to community college.
“A four-year university is so expensive,” the Oakland Technical High School graduate said.
But Wright’s mom told her not to give up. Another opportunity might present itself.
That opportunity came when Wright accepted a full scholarship to attend Northeastern University as part of the new Oakland Opportunity Scholarship program.
Launched this year, the program provides admitted and selected Oakland Unified School District students — and other Pell Grant-eligible students from the city — with four-year scholarships that cover tuition, housing, food and fees.
That’s an $85,000 value per year, per student, and represents a $3.5 million annual investment from Northeastern.
In its inaugural year, 44 students applied for the scholarships and 15 were offered them — over the planned 10 because of the caliber of the applicants, the university said.
Wright is one of seven students who have accepted so far.
“It’s a testament to Northeastern, not just here in Oakland, but in the community as a whole,” said Dan Sachs, dean of Northeastern’s Oakland campus. “This is a really big deal.”
Two of the Oakland Opportunity Scholarship recipients — Wright and Angela Cecelia Vergara — took classes on Northeastern’s Oakland campus as high school students.
They were part of Upward Bound, a federally funded program that helps first-generation college students from underrepresented communities.
Vergara, also an Oakland Technical High School graduate, is keenly aware of the challenges of affording college, especially being from a multi-sibling household. Growing up in the Philippines, she moved with her family to California while she was in middle school.
Her parents encouraged her to succeed academically.
“I’m really grateful to them for how they prepared me to get where I am now,” she said.
Vergara is excited to experience all that Northeastern has to offer. That includes over 350 Bay Area employers who participate in the university’s signature co-op program — where students alternate semesters of academic classroom work with semesters of full-time employment in a field related to their skills and interests.
“For me, this opportunity is not just to help me relieve a financial burden, but to get to participate in experiential learning,” Vergara said.
Wearing a bright red Northeastern Huskies T-shirt and a huge smile, Vergara said she also wants to study in Boston and London — taking full advantage of Northeastern’s network of 13 global campuses.
Wright said she plans to major in computer science and behavioral neuroscience, and is considering becoming a software engineer or a nurse practitioner and opening her own clinic.
“I’m really into self-care and beauty,” she said. “I want to make people feel good about themselves.”
In addition to Wright and Vergara, the other scholarship recipients are:
Their achievements were celebrated during an event Wednesday on the patio of Lisser Hall on Northeastern’s Oakland campus. Under an overcast sky, the sun peeking out to illuminate the festivities, a crowd gathered to hear from the scholarship recipients and about Northeastern’s commitment to the Oakland community.
“From someone who is still paying student loans, this is an exciting day,” said Kevin Jenkins, a District 6 Oakland City Council member. “There are so many barriers to getting a higher education. And money is one of them.”
Jenkins graduated from Oakland High School, majored in urban studies and planning at San Francisco State University and earned a master’s degree in public administration from California State University, East Bay.
But it wasn’t easy.
In addition to taking out student loans, Jenkins held down multiple jobs while attending college — at UPS, FedEx and as a bus driver.
Having access to the Oakland Opportunity Scholarship program certainly would have helped, Jenkins said.
“It would have meant everything,” he said.
Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell said getting into college is just a first step for many low-income students.
Scholarships like these help bridge that financial gap, she said — pointing out that it takes partnerships between academic, business and civic leaders to truly move the ball forward for talented, disenfranchised students.
“This isn’t just about scholarships, it’s about communities working together,” Johnson-Trammell said.
Northeastern has a legacy of giving back to students in the 13 communities it calls home.
In Boston, for example, Northeastern contributes $13.5 million annually to provide scholarships for 150 high school students.