Joshua and Celine Hernandez Scholarship

Selection statement of purpose
Scholarships within the college are awarded to provide financial support based on need, academic achievement, and/or other specified criteria as determined by the fund agreement for Donor/Gift Funded scholarships or the awarding department for Institutional/Departmental scholarships.
The donor sets the criteria for recipient selection (i.e., financial need, field of study). Scholarships are awarded for one academic year. Institutional funded scholarship selection criteria will be determined prior to review and selection of applicants and will be documented annually.
Junior/senior student who is hard-working and in need of some good fortune to help them on their path to success. Students who are first-generation and demonstrate financial need are preferred, as well as journalism majors, or students pursuing a double degree or minor in Creative Writing. The scholarship should not be given to the same student in consecutive years. Students who receive the scholarship should provide the donor an end-of-year summary of the highs and lows of the year and how they benefited from the scholarship.
Joshua Hernandez received his BA in Journalism and Mass Communication (News-Editorial) from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2005. While at CU, Joshua served as Sport Editor of the Campus Press and received both the Rick Riley and Barry Hartman Scholarships. He is an avid traveler, photographer and nature enthusiast. He is currently writing a fiction novel called Maven the Raven and the Search for the Last Imperial, which uses birds as main characters. Some of his past research trips have included visits to the rainforests of Alaska, Costa Rica and Guatemala. In 2019 Joshua converted a Ford Transit van into a mobile home and began travelling across the United States. He has visited more than 40 states, hiked the highest points of 30 states, and visited more state and national parks than he can count. Joshua is also the co-founder of a volunteer-based education nonprofit organization called Impossible Possibilities that benefits students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by way of college scholarships and literacy programs, one of which is a reading-achievement program named “Maven’s Milestones.” The objectivity scholarship is a reminder of the ethical responsibilities of journalists.
We encourage students to express gratitude, and so thank you letters can be written to Joshua and Celine Hernandez.
Selection Criteria
Applications are reviewed holistically, and selection criteria may include, but is not limited to, academic record, leadership experience, extracurricular involvement, community service, employment, essays, and in some cases, financial need as determined by the FAFSA/CASFA.
Essays: Quality of writing and content are weighed heavily.
Financial Need: The FAFSA and the Colorado Application for State Financial Aid (“CASFA”) are the mechanisms approved for calculating financial need for need-based scholarship awarding.