The Betancourt Scholarship Fund
Menu
Empowering the leaders of tomorrow through the pursuit of a college degree
Yohanna Torres
Maria Reyes
Yohanna was born in the Dominican Republic and raised by a single mother in the United States. Her family’s financial struggles made her determined to become the first in her family to achieve a college education.
As a Junior in high school, Yohanna took nine AP/AICE classes, all while holding three jobs, amounting to working 40 hours a week, to help her mother pay bills. On weekends, she spent time driving thousands of miles around Florida to campaign for the Key Club by giving speeches in front of 2000 students. As a result, she was elected to become District Treasurer. This leadership role made her responsible for $800,000 in operations and a $500,000 endowment budget, while also overseeing two committees and serving as the service grant committee chair.
Yohanna participated in the CFE Credit Union as Teller during her Sophomore year and Head Teller as a Senior. To further distinguish herself, Yohanna competed in regional financial literacy competitions and won many of these against students from the states of Florida and Alabama, eventually placing first.
She is now a student at Hamilton College pursuing a degree in Economics. Her goals are to eventually open up her own real estate firm and invest in low-income housing. Yohanna’s dream is to pay it forward and give another high achieving yet economically disadvantaged students the opportunity to pursue a college education.
Maria was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador and raised in the United States. She graduated from Colonial High School with Honors in the top 10% of the class of 2019.
Throughout her years in high school, she took many rigorous courses as part of the Cambridge AICE program along with doing community service with the Colonial Key Club. As a Junior, she was selected to be part of the Elevation Scholars Program, which led her to apply for the Head Teller position in the CFE Credit Union, to which she was accepted.
As a high school Senior, Maria balanced a full course load of AP and AICE classes, participating in various clubs, being Head Teller for the Credit Union, all while working part-time.
As a first-generation college student, Maria is now attending Franklin and Marshall College, where she majors in Sociology on a pre-med track. She is very interested in science and extremely passionate about making an impact on people's lives.