The Ford Family Foundation recently awarded its prestigious scholarship to three outstanding seniors from Madras High School (MHS).
Congratulations to Yashira Chavero, Manny Meraz, and Andres Pineda! These students have demonstrated exceptional resilience, dedication, and leadership, paving the way for their bright futures.
Yashira Chavero
For years, Yashira Chavero has had an up-close look at what it takes to become a Ford Scholar. She has witnessed her former classmates receive the Ford Foundation Scholarship. It covers 90% of unmet financial needs to attend college in Oregon.
“Just seeing everything they did, all their services they did, and how they applied for it, and they got rewarded for it,” Chavero said.
Throughout her academic career at MHS, Chavero has done everything she can to bolster her resume and give back to both her school and community. She is the President of Key Club and Interact Club, captain of the girl’s tennis team, a member of the National Honor Society, the student representative to the JCSD 509J School Board the past two years, served in both leadership and yearbook at MHS, and worked for our school district as a peer tutor since her sophomore year.
All that work seemingly paid off when she received the notification from the Ford Family Foundation on a Wednesday afternoon saying she was one of their scholarship recipients. She was in class thinking about her future when the bell rang. After leaving class, she checked her phone and saw the notification.
“I got the notification and I kind of freaked out a little bit. I was like, “Is this real,” she said. “It felt really good at that moment and I’m glad. It made me feel like all the hard work paid off.”
According to the Ford Family Foundation website, they look for resilient students who possess four qualities. They look for academic potential, community engagement and service to others, work ethic, and the motivation and mindset of the student.
Chavero looks back at a pivotal turning point back to her sophomore year when she attended Rotary’s RYLA Camp. RYLA stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awakening. This is a challenging program that is designed to grow passion, resilience, determination, mental toughness, gratitude and compassion in the individuals attending.
“I think that really took me out of my shell and then also helped me help other people be leaders,” she said. “I really enjoyed that experience, and I think it’s something I’ve used throughout the years and really benefited me.”
One of the biggest rewards for earning the Ford Foundation Scholarship is the renewable financial award of up to $40,000 per year. This can help cover expenses such as tuition, living expenses, books, and other required fees for college. Being a Ford Scholar lifts a gigantic financial burden from Chavero.
“I really think it’s going to help me out,” she said. “They’re going to pay for my tuition, but room and food is around $15,000. I don’t even have anything close to that.”
The financial help will also free Chavero from having to work throughout her college years. She’s worked to earn money throughout high school. Often balancing her responsibilities among her studies, job, and extracurricular activities.
“I really want to hopefully get as many scholarships as I can so I can finally take a break and just focus on my studies,” she said. “Then maybe join some clubs over there and just really enjoy my college experience.”
Chavero will soon graduate from Madras High to attend the University of Oregon. There, she’ll be studying Elementary Education in hopes of becoming a teacher. Her goal is to return to Jefferson County and teach the next generation. Chavero credits a couple people for helping her along the way. Those two being Cam Rosenfield, the Student Success Coordinator at JCMS, and Kim Schmith.
“He [Mr. Rosenfield] always saw potential in me and he always motivated me and pushed me to do hard things,” she said. “She [Schmith] is my key club advisor and also helped push me through the years. She helped me apply for scholarships and helped me get in contact with past members who received the Ford Foundation scholarship that gave me helpful advice.”
Not long from now, Chavero will most likely be the one on the other end of helping a student through this process. For now, her message for students is that hard work pays off.
“If it’s something that you like doing and something you want to do, just continue doing that,” she said. “You’ll meet people that have similar beliefs or values as you while you’re doing it. You’ll likely meet new friends and you’ll step out of your comfort zone and you’ll be set with a lot of opportunities that you might not have thought you could have.
Manny Meraz
For Manny Meraz, he carried a quiet weight shared among many of his peers. His higher education dreams were measured not by ambition or effort, but what he and his family could afford. His decision to apply and go after the prestigious Ford Family Foundation Scholarship meant the difference on where he would be attending after graduation.
“I don’t come from a very high income household, so the fact was, if I didn’t get the scholarship, then that meant I couldn’t go to university,” he said.
Throughout high school, Manny worked to make his presence count by staying deeply involved and stepping up when needed. He has participated in numerous activities such as boys soccer, cheerleading, track and field, and theatre. Currently, he is fundraising to attend the International Thespian Festival this June, where he and his acting partner, Cara Todd, earned a spot for their performance in the Regional Thespian Competition earlier this year.
He’s involved in student leadership, even earning the position of Associated Student Body President his senior year. This year, one of the projects leadership worked on was bringing the public awareness campaign “Every 15 Minutes” back to MHS. Meraz played a key role the day of the event.
“We were spreading awareness and I was dressed up in this whole cloak and I couldn’t speak for the entire day,” he said.
Meraz was dressed in a black cloak along with a dozen other students to represent a teenager who dies every 15 minutes on average nationally due to driving while intoxicated. Students were selected by the grim reaper during the day in class. This meant the student had died and could no longer speak the rest of the day.
The Ford Family Foundation seeks students who contribute back to their school, family, and/or community. They want their Ford Scholars to think and care about how they impact the world around them and take action to get involved. Meraz embodies these values not just in big moments, but in how he interacts with people on a daily basis.
One of Meraz’s greatest strengths is his ability to conversate and relate with just about anyone. In a day in age when so many people, both youth and adults, have their heads buried in their phones, Meraz is seeking out opportunities to connect with his fellow peers and staff members at MHS.
“I’m not afraid to talk to anyone and I find it very enjoyable to actually conversate with others,” he said. “I’m not scared of who I’m talking with, whether you’re a cheerleader, whether you’re a football player, whether you’re a band kid, theater kid, or maybe you just like all sports, all clubs. I’ll find a way to talk to you.”
It’s fitting that at the moment he found out he was named a Ford Scholar, he was surrounded by his classmates in the Future Center at MHS. After some encouragement to check his email, Meraz did just that and saw the Ford emblem in his inbox.
“I covered my phone up because I didn’t want to see the words,” he said. “I had to be surprised.”
He was indeed surprised.
“I jumped out of my chair and I started just hugging my cousin, who was right next to me. And then I went to Miss Loza [Future Center Coordinator, and I actually almost threw her off of the stool she was sitting in,” he said. “Then I fell on the floor right afterwards, and I just couldn’t stop. That day was just filled, it was a little bit dramatic, but I was very excited to do that and it felt amazing. I felt like I could just do like a thousand push ups at that moment.”
With the scholarship, Meraz intends to attend Portland State University and major in psychology. His long-term goal is to start his own non-profit that will be focused on helping the unhoused. In addition, Meraz will also be an intern in Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley’s office. He is no doubt going to be busy the next four years, but there is another benefit to receiving the Ford Foundation Scholarship, and that comes in the form of added support.
“I’m also going to have a mental health counselor and then I’m also going to have an academic advisor that’s going to be with me the entire time, so I’m gonna have a lot of help throughout the entire years of college,” he said.
Meraz would not be in this position today without the help and sacrifices of his mother, Guadalupe Ruiz.
“I want to thank my mom because she gave me literally everything,” he said. “It felt like we were just underdogs of the entire town. So, I’m very happy and very thankful to her.”
Andres Pineda
Andres Pineda entered his senior year in a similar position as his classmates. Looking forward, wondering what he needs to do to put himself in the best possible position after graduation. On his mind was where he was going to college, but a bigger question he asked himself was how he was going to afford it. That’s where the Ford Foundation Scholarship came in.
“If I got the scholarship, I’d be able to go to a university, and if I didn’t, I’d end up going to a community college,” he said.
Pineda, similar to Meraz, had his heart and eyes set on attending college in the Rose City with the future goal of going into the medical field.
“I always wanted to go to Portland State University, and that was always a goal for me,” he said “The Ford Foundation Scholarship would be one of the main factors of me going to Portland State University.”
Pineda did what he could throughout his time in high school to make himself an attractive applicant for the scholarship. When he wasn’t busy playing soccer or running for the track team, he was fulfilling his responsibilities as president for the Youth Advisory Council, and taking on a full course load of college level courses through Madras High’s Dual Enrollment Program.
One of Pineda’s passions is serving his community. Specifically advocating against drug and alcohol use. Through his work with YAC, he has partnered with Jefferson County Public Health and organized pep rallies throughout the community for the younger students. At these pep rallies, he advocates against substance abuse.
“I feel like that’s really important because that’s like bringing our community together,” he said. Advocating against something that shouldn’t be in the community and that harms the community because that’s that’s a rampant issue in Madras and in the nation as a whole as well.”
Giving back to the community seems to come naturally to Pineda. During Thanksgiving Break this school year, he volunteered with Jefferson County Public Health and helped provide a free Thanksgiving dinner to those in need. In addition to the food, the event also provided blankets and hygiene kits. Overall, Pineda helped serve more than 70 individuals that week.
“It felt fulfilling to do that because seeing everybody smile and just being together eating and then just smiling being able to talk to each other and just being in the comfort of a warm area was nice,” he said. “It was really, really fulfilling for me. I was helping my community, I was helping them come together, you know and I feel like that was really important.”
On the day Pineda learned he was named a Ford Scholar, he was sitting inside one of his college level courses. Caleb Gayman’s College Composition class to be exact. Students were silently working at the time when he got the email.
“It said congratulations and I opened it up and then it said to confirm everything and I started working on that,” he said. I didn’t really have a crazy big reaction.”
Call it shock, call it disbelief. The reality that he had just earned a scholarship that would cover 90% of unmet needs didn’t fully sink in until he finished confirming the information Ford Foundation needed.
“I texted my mom and she said she was really proud of me,” he said.
It was a moment of relief for Pineda. A realization that the work he and his mother have put in throughout the years was paying off in a tangible way. The Ford Family Foundation states on their website they believe success comes from one’s ability to grow and learn and rise to challenges and persist despite obstacles. They strive to find students who are motivated and have a growth mindset. Pineda embodies that spirit.
He credits his time management skills on how he was able to juggle so many different responsibilities. From athletics, academics, participating in different clubs at MHS, leading YAC, and also working part-time at McDonald’s, he persevered. Now he sits less than two weeks away from walking across the stage at graduation and capping off his high school career with an exclamation point.
“I’m excited,” he said with a laugh and with some relief in his voice. “I’m excited to finally, you know, be able to take a little break.”
At the end of the day, Pineda’s deepest gratitude belongs to the person who provided unwavering support, his mother, Miriam Velez Pineda.
“I want to thank my mom because she really motivated me to apply for scholarships and actually get involved with clubs and the community,” he said. “I want to thank her because she also worked really hard in order for me to get the opportunities that I got.”
All three of these students are set to graduate from Madras High School on June 7, 2025. The ceremony will be held in the stadium at 10:30am.