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ASPIRA Inc., of New Jersey, honored eight (8) scholarship award recipients from four high schools from the Essex and Passaic Counties. (Barringer High School, Belleville High School, Eastside High School, and Science High School.) Despite the rigors and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, both personal and broadly speaking, these students overcame the obstacles to boast impressive GPAs yielding them thousands of dollars in scholarship awards and recognition.

Each student received a $1000 scholarship that can be applied to any costs associated with their collegiate experience. All of the students were extremely gracious and thanked ASPIRA's Academic Advisors Leticia (Leti) Minaya and Christian Martinez-Gonzalez.

Most of the students are first-generation students, meaning that they are the first in their families to attend an institute of higher learning. Winning the award wasn't just a way to pay for college, but a means to change the trajectory of their family's future generations.

This year, ASPIRA is proud to announce that we had not one, but TWO 
Aspirantés was given the distinction of Class Valedictorian for their respective high schools. Odalis Hernandez (Eastside High School) and Aryaman Rayvash (Barringer High School).

Below are their speeches on what it meant to them to receive the scholarship, along with some brief words from each scholarship winner. Just click on the videos below.

Once an Aspiranté, always an Aspiranté.