Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Take Off/Lanzate Education Travel Award

christine-orteg
Employee
Employee
giving-flight.jpg Have you heard of the Take Off!/ ¡Lanzate! Education travel award? For the third year in a row, Southwest Airlines is offering travel to disadvantaged students who travel away from home to attend college. The cool thing about this award is that Latino students can use the ticket(s) to bring a parent or loved one to visit them at school, or they can jet home to see the family. Maria Elena Cruz pictured in the photo was a past recipient. Her interest in Mexican Anthropology ties to strong family roots where her family hailed from a line of Mexican huichol chiefs. She was totally thrilled to receive the tickets as the best school for her field of study in Mexican Anthropology, was in Austin, TX. A Californian from a home of modest means, Maria Elena felt a tremendous relief to know that she would be able to stay connected to her family, and could not believe she was selected! She thought that there was little chance anyone would care about her dream to obtain her Masters so far from home. The other good news is that the deadline to apply for the travel award has been extended to June 29. If you know a Latino student who is enrolled in a college or university away from home who maintains a minimum 2.5 GPA and has a financial need, please encourage him or her to apply.  For more information and for complete requirements, click here for the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities web site.
3 Comments
stephanie_morto
Explorer C
Good program but why does it have to be for a Latino student ...why not any student, not seeing color of skin or ethnicity...just smarts and need?? It bothers me that it is prejudiced against other students just because they are not Latino...
Edna_Ruano
Explorer C
Thanks for sharing your comment with us. I wanted to share with you some background as to why the program was initially started. The purpose of the program is to provide travel assistance to students with a socio-economic need and who travel far away from home to attend college. At this time, the program focuses on the Hispanic population as scholarly study after study suggests that although it is the fastest growing population it is the least highly educated population. Over the past two decades, research outlines the specific challenges for Latino students that prevent them from obtaining a four year college degree. For example, a study from the Pew Hispanic Center finds that the college dropout rate for Hispanics may be every bit as significant as the high school dropout rate. In fact, the Caucasian/Latino gap in finishing college is larger than the high school completion gap. As the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S., this situation has serious implications for the future of our country. As a Company who cares about each community it serves, we began this program as a means to address this issue. Although it does not completely address the issue, weÃ
Patricia_Wither
Explorer C
This is a wonderful program! It truly offers "wind beneath the wings" of students who are on their way to productive and beneficial futures. Kudos to Southwest Airlines, in partnership with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, for supporting higher education in this unique way.