Thirty students from affiliated union families in Texas are receiving a $1,000 boost from the 2016 Texas AFL-CIO Scholarship Program toward paying for their higher educations. One of the winners, Juan Bruselas-Calcano, was a Garland ISD student. Ranked in the top 10 percent of his class at North Garland High School, Bruselas-Calcano plans to attend UT-Dallas. He participated in HOSA and was a member of the National Honor Society and Beta Club. Bruselas-Calcano is the son of Juan C. Bruselas-Vazquez and Carmen Calcano. Brother Bruselas-Vazquez is a member of American Federation of Government Employees 3637.
The long-standing scholarship program puts high school senior applicants through a process that exposes them to the basics of the labor movement. The students are tested on introductory materials on labor unions and undergo interviews with Central Labor Council scholarship committees. Besides the labor component, criteria for the awards include academic records, extracurricular activities and financial need.
Applicants for Continuing Scholarships discussed their volunteer and public service activities while in college. Five continuing scholarships were awarded to students who have previously won scholarships as high school seniors.
This year’s program considered nearly 150 applications. To be eligible, one of a student’s parents or legal guardians must be a member of a labor union that is affiliated both with its Central Labor Council and the Texas AFL-CIO.
The Texas AFL-CIO pays the one-time grants directly to college financial aid offices to be credited to the accounts of recipients. Funding of scholarships for all the semi-finalists chosen by the Central Labor Councils is made possible through the Texas AFL-CIO Scholarship Fund.
Texas AFL-CIO President John Patrick said the generosity of past and current donors to the fund is continuing a tradition over the last 20 or so years in which every semifinalist chosen by the Central Labor Councils has been able to receive funding.
The Texas AFL-CIO is a state labor federation whose 237,000 affiliated members advocate for a Raising Wages Agenda in Texas and beyond.