Swing For Scholars Golf Outing Celebrates 25 Years Of Supporting Latino Excellence: Premier Golf Event Benefits Chicago Scholars and the Manny & Pat Pulido Sánchez Foundation, Empowers Latino Youth to Pursue Opportunities via Education
As part of its ongoing mission to cultivate a vibrant Chicago powered by diverse leaders from every neighborhood, Chicago Scholars today announced the twenty-fifth anniversary of Swing for Scholars, benefitting Chicago Scholars and the Manny & Pat Pulido Sánchez Foundation.
Now entering its twenty-fifth year, Swing for Scholars is an annual golf tournament that supports first-generation and low-income students in the Chicago Scholars program. The event includes breakfast, lunch, a golf clinic, a cocktail hour with live auction and an awards presentation. Registration includes golf accessories provided by corporate supporters of the scholarship and Chicago Scholars. Scholarship recipients will attend the clinic and reception and give acceptance speeches during the awards program.
"We are thrilled to be back for this milestone twenty-fifth anniversary of Swing for Scholars," said Jeffery Beckham, Jr., CEO of Chicago Scholars. "It is an honor to continue supporting the hard work, talent and determination of our exceptional students, affording them with new and exciting avenues to limitless success in the future."
Since 2019, the tournament has benefitted the Manny & Pat Pulido Sánchez Foundation, which provides charitable grants and scholarships to disadvantaged youth, specifically first-generation Americans of Hispanic descent for college, trade school, private high schools and other educational needs. The foundation provides eligible students with a four-year scholarship of $5,000, totaling $20,000.
Originally founded in 1996 by then Chairman of Nuveen Investments, Tim Schwertfeger, and his wife Gail Waller, Chicago Scholars provided a onetime award of $1,000 to a graduating senior nominated from every public, private and parochial high school in Chicago. The intent of the program was to highlight talent regardless of the student's high school or neighborhood.
Over time, the organization evolved into the Chicago Scholars Foundation and Swing for Scholars was born. This annual golf outing was created to benefit Chicago Scholars and the Manny & Pat Pulido Sánchez Foundation. Over its twenty-five year history, Swing for Scholars has raised more than two million dollars for Chicago Scholars. Since the establishment of the foundation, 11 recipients have been awarded $220,000 in scholarships.
As the first generation in each of their families to attend and graduate from college, Manny Sanchez and Pat Pulido Sánchez said it was important to provide young Latino students with a pathway to success via educational opportunities.
"The value of education is priceless," said Manny Sánchez. "No student should ever be denied the opportunity to realize their dreams due to obstacles beyond their control. Pat and I feel strongly that we owe our success to hard work, determination and above all, the chance we were each given to pursue the path of higher education. It is such an honor for us to empower these dedicated and talented students to realize their own ambitions and we are thrilled to continue our association with Chicago Scholars and Swing for Scholars."
Pulido Sánchez concurred with those remarks, saying, "Manny and I both understand the innate economic and cultural challenges facing Latino students that might impede the contributions they can make to society and because of that, we felt it was important to provide an opportunity to help remove those barriers and give these young people their own chance to achieve excellence," she said. "We are incredibly proud to be a part of the continuing and stellar tradition of Swing for Scholars and look forward to participating for many years to come."
Swing for Scholars takes place on August 14, 2023 from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Naperville Country Club (25W570 Chicago Ave, Naperville, Ill.)
For more information, please visit https://chicagoscholars.org/event/swing-for-scholars/
ABOUT CHICAGO SCHOLARS
Chicago Scholars is a 501(c)(3) foundation, formed in 1996 to help under-resourced and academically ambitious Chicago high school students attend and graduate college. During this 20-year period, it has developed and refined its seven-year college to career access and success program to serve 2,500 students who have attended 313 highly rated colleges in the United States. Visit https://chicagoscholars.org/ to learn more about the organization's mission.
ABOUT THE MANNY & PAT PULIDO SÁNCHEZ FOUNDATION
Established in 2019, the Manny & Pat Pulido Sánchez Foundation provides academic scholarships to economically disadvantaged first-generation Americans of Hispanic descent in the city of Chicago.