June 5, 2023

 2023 College Scholarship Winners

The D’Addario Foundation is proud to announce that in 2023, ten more students will be receiving a college scholarship through The D’Addario Foundation College Scholarship Program.

The non-profit D'Addario Foundation established a college scholarship fund in 2018 to distribute merit and need-based scholarships to socioeconomically disadvantaged youth. In order to receive a scholarship, a student must study music in a grantee organization for multiple years and show great promise but lack the resources to attend college or trade school.

Now in its fifth year, the D’Addario Foundation College Scholarship has been awarded to 53 students in total; over 80% being first-generation college students and all of whom would otherwise not have the financial means to pursue higher education. This year also marks a special milestone for the program—the very first group of scholarship recipients, who began college in the fall of 2019, are graduating from their undergraduate programs.

Representing communities across the country, eight of the 2023 scholarship recipients are the first in their families to attend college. In most cases, these are young men & women who discovered their local community music programs and immersed themselves as students & mentors in those programs for their entire childhood. Data shows that the programs supported by the D’Addario Foundation spur an increased number of students who not only graduate from high school in areas where dropout rates are high, but go on to attend college.

Of course, there are many other intangible benefits of these programs. “Having a female piano teacher is what really got me to feel like I have a place in jazz,” said Stella Jones, 2023 scholarship recipient who’s been with Ethos Music Center in Portland, Oregon for 11 years. “The staff at Ethos is so diverse; it gets kids of color and young girl musicians to feel like music is not just a white male dominated place.”

Ambassador Spotlights:

Adamari Alvarado Martinez

Music Program: Enriching Lives through Music (San Rafael, CA)

Attending: University of California, Davis

Major: Animal Science

Miguelfi Guzman

Music Program: New City Kids (Jersey City, NJ)

Attending: Drexel University

Major: Dance

Jaqueline Marquez Salgado

Music Program: Harmony Project KC (Kansas City, MO)

Attending: Washington University

Major: Urban Studies

Emily Huyhua

Music Program: InTempo (Stamford, CT)

Attending: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Major: Electronic Arts / Music

Additional Recipients:

• Aiden Rogers | Kids in Concert (Poulsbo, WA)
• Ashley Rocha | UpBeat NYC (Bronx, NY)
• Julia Yuan | Boston String Academy (Allston, MA)
• Lucy Apolinar-Hernandez | Latino Arts Strings Program (Milwaukee, WI)
• Ronaldo Lopez Lorenzo | East Lake Expression Engine (Chattanooga, TN)
• Stella Jones | Ethos Music Center (Portland, OR)

Each of this year’s recipients are shining examples of why the D’Addario Foundation supports these programs. Their dedication and hard work have allowed them to benefit from robust, continuous music education and mentorship. Now, they’ll be moving onto schools such as Drexel University, University of California Davis, and Washington University, among other great institutions.

The D’Addario Foundation College Scholarship is made possible by the generosity of the Rita & Herbert Z. Gold Charitable Trust. To learn more about this program, click here.