Alberta's Morales-Gonzales Story

In the summer of 2017, Roberts Wesleyan University launched our very first Academic Summer Camps for high school students on our campus. These week-long, overnight camps allowed students to participate in hands-on academic sessions taught by Roberts faculty during the day and social events giving them opportunities to explore Rochester in the evening.

These camps provide opportunities for high school students, and Caryl Wenzke, a member of the Roberts Wesleyan University Board of Trustees, saw our summer camps as the perfect way to build a connection between Roberts Wesleyan University and the Guadalupe Center. Located in Immokalee, FL, an impoverished community near Naples, the Guadalupe Center’s mission is to break the cycle of poverty through education. One of their three programs, Tutor Corps, focuses on preparing high school students for higher education.

With Caryl’s connections, we were able to present our summer camp programs to the students at the Guadalupe Center. In the summer of 2019, thirteen students from the Guadalupe Center attended our summer programs! That was just the start of our partnership with the Guadalupe Center. For our summer camps in 2020, we were prepared to welcome even more students from the Guadalupe Center. However, when our summer camps were canceled, we found an alternative way to connect with these students. In the summer of 2020, 28 rising seniors from the Guadalupe Center took an online summer class from Roberts Wesleyan University. For the summer of 2021, our camps look different, but the Guadalupe Center plans to send a group of students and we have 16 students enrolled in our online summer camps.

The opportunities that students from the Guadalupe Center have had with Roberts have shown them the difference a Roberts education makes, and they want to learn more. For the fall of 2020, we had our first group of students from the Guadalupe Center apply to Roberts Wesleyan University. These students received federal grants and loans, scholarships from the Guadalupe Center, and scholarships and grants from Roberts Wesleyan University. However, the students still had a financial gap. To meet this need, Gerry and Caryl Wenzke established the Roberts Wesleyan University Guadalupe Center Scholarship. As we begin to grow and steward this scholarship, we have received additional funding from the Karpus Foundation and other generous donors.

Our first Roberts Wesleyan University Guadalupe Center Scholarship recipient, Alberta Morales-Gonzales, a summer camp alumna, has completed her first year at Roberts. Alberta is the first in her family to graduate from high school and the first in her family to attend college. She is thriving here at Roberts! Alberta is going to be joined by six additional students from the Guadalupe Center this coming fall! As this partnership continues to grow, we invite you to be a part of transforming these students' lives.

Alberta has this to say: “Everyone is so nice at Roberts. One of the wonderful professors I met at the camp is now my academic advisor, and two of the professors take me with them to church every Sunday and have taken me to go shopping for winter clothes. I also have the opportunity to share ideas freely. Everyone is so open to discussing issues that matter, especially faith, even though not everyone believes the same thing.”