Miley González Scholarship Fund for Indigenous Peoples to go LIVE August 7th
Written by Katie Modic
On August 7th, 2023 the Miley González Scholarship Fund for Indigenous Peoples will go live in celebration of International Day for Indigenous Peoples on August 9th. The campaign’s goal is to raise funds for students from Latin America’s indigenous communities to study at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), located in Turrialba, Costa Rica. CATIE is one of the most accomplished higher education research institutions in Latin America totaling over 10,000 research publications and graduating over 3,000 master and doctoral students. Unfortunately, 70% of the students who are accepted to study at CATIE cannot afford to attend. This campaign and the donors who support it will reverse that trend. The week-long campaign, hosted by The Tropics Foundation, in partnership with Amigos of Costa Rica and CATIE, will be live from August 7-11, 2023 with a goal of raising $35,000.00, tripling what was raised in years past, in hopes of supporting a full scholarship for a student to receive an advanced degree at CATIE.
The fund was established in 2020 in memory of Dr. I. Miley González. Dr. González had a long and distinguished career of more than four decades in higher education and government, including serving as CATIE’s deputy director general and Dean of the Graduate School. In addition to his service at CATIE, Dr. Gonzáles held posts at Montana State, New Mexico State University, the University of Arizona, Pennsylvania State University and Iowa State University.
Photo Credit, New Mexico State University
A highly sought after academic, Dr. Gonzalez was nominated by former U.S. President Bill Clinton to serve as the Undersecretary for Research, Education and Economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, serving from 1997 to 2001. In this role, he provided oversight for the Agricultural Research Service, the Economic Research Service, the National Agricultural Statistics Service and the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
In addition, Dr. Gonzalez served as a member of the National Telephone Bank Board, the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, the Commodity Credit Corporation, the White House Commission for Excellence in Hispanic and Native American Education, and on the U.S./China Commission on Science and Technology. He served for more than 15 years on the USDA Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities leadership team representing NMSU. Hispanic Business Magazine recognized him as one the top 100 most influential Hispanics in the U.S.
He was born at the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo in Texas, which is recognized as a Native American tribal entity and spent many years of his life advocating for the rights of indigenous communities.
“The Miley González Scholarship changed my life,” said Montserrat Villafuerte, the current Miley González scholar studying climate change and market volatility at CATIE. “I could never have had the opportunity to get a master’s degree without the support of the scholarship. I’m excited to return to my community of Chiapas, Mexico when I graduate and teach producers how to bring their products to market in more sustainable ways.”
The campaign will be live from August 7-11th, 2023 in honor of International Day for Indigenous Peoples on August 9th, 2023. More information about the campaign, as well as donation and scholarship information, is available here: https://www.classy.org/campaign/miley-gonzalez-scholarship-fund-for-indigenous-peoples/c497537