It's Graduation Season! May 2021 ENews

Catch up on our news with our May 2021 ENewsletter. We send ENews out twice a semester. Scroll down to the bottom of any ENews to subscribe.

A little bit of what you will read:

A few points of pride of our graduates:

• We have 7 students who earned full, four-year scholarships! Their schools include Furman, Clemson, USC-Columbia, Wesleyan University, and Berea College.

• Two students accepted the prestigious Lay Scholarship at Furman.

• Two students won competitive Questbridge scholarships.

• Two students are headed to the Citadel (that's a first!).

• Other student acceptances include: Spartanburg Methodist College, Converse College, College of Charleston, Davidson College, Greenville Tech, and South Carolina State University.

Graduate Spotlight

Our very own Ingrid Ramos was featured in Furman's Dins Digest as one of five outstanding graduating seniors for her work bettering her community! She was also awarded Shucker Center Unsung Hero Award for her dedication to supporting the Latinx community.

25 Years of Bridges

Can you believe it's been 25 years since we welcomed our first class of students? What started as a summer program has evolved into a comprehensive, year-round program that has helped hundreds of students work toward their brightest futures.

Check out our renovated website (bridgestoabrighterfuture.org) to learn more about how we work with students, their families, and the community today. And be sure to check out a few features that we think you'll enjoy:

Meet our 25th Class Read our story in the Greenville Journal

Check out some outstanding scholarship recipients

Check back for more stories and spotlights over the next several months, both online and on social media.

Help us reach our goal of raising $25,000 for our 25th anniversary! We have a challenge from an anonymous donor who will match that $25,000 -- but we need YOUR help to do it. Please consider making a contribution today. Your gift will help the next class of Bridges break the cycle of poverty through higher education. Thank you!

Alumni Spotlight

Meet Jonathan Montoya, the first of our "Where are they Now?" alumni spotlights. During his time at Bridges, Jonathan connected with guest speaker Stewart Spinks. That was the start of a relationship that led to Jonathan today serving as a territory manager for Spinx. As Jonathan says, “I attribute where I am today to the love and encouragement I received and the connections I made at Bridges.”

Summer 2021

When schools closed in March 2020 due to covid, Bridges went into high gear checking on our students and making sure they had what they needed to get through these unprecedented times. We knew we couldn't operate as normal, but we also knew how detrimental it would be to cancel any of our work. So, we pivoted totally online, with all one-on-one student meetings, Saturday Colleges, and teambuilding activates going virtual. We even presented a full, four-week summer Foundations program, all from our computers.

While we made it work in 2020, we are thrilled to be back on campus for summer 2021! It will look a little different but we will be back together again (thank goodness).

Fun fact: Our Omega class was welcomed virtually in April 2020 and have only participated virtually in official Bridges events!

You can read more about our summer plans (which include covid precautions as advised by Furman and the CDC) online.