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From the beginning, the Hispanic Development Fund has focused on a critical need that emanated directly from the community: developing a scholarship program to empower Hispanic students to attend and graduate from college. It was also considered important from the very beginning to make this a community-wide effort, relying on other Latino nonprofit organizations to assist with the review of applications and pooling of resources. Additionally, the scholarship effort stressed to all students the importance of giving back to the Latino community and engaging as community leaders. In 1984, HDF awarded its first scholarships by giving $100 each to 100 students through a separately named Hispanic Scholarship Fund. In 2020, in partnership with local and regional higher education institutions, HDF awarded $689,000 in scholarships to 325 students.
Application
The HDF Scholarship Program awards college scholarships to full time students from the Greater Kansas City area.
The 2020 HDF Scholarship application is now closed. Please come back in the fall for more details on how to apply.
Questions? Contact the Hispanic Development Fund at info@hdfkc.org.
To qualify for an HDF Scholarship, students must be of Hispanic Heritage and also:
Graduating/have graduated from a Greater Kansas City metropolitan area high school or obtain a general equivalency diploma (GED) from a local organization. (The Greater Kansas City metropolitan area is generally defined as Cass, Clay, Jackson, Platte, Johnson and Wyandotte counties.)
Attend/have attended a Greater Kansas City metropolitan area high school for the last three years prior to graduation.
Accepted or enrolled in a fully accredited college or university and working toward an associate, bachelor, or graduate degree. (Applicants attending vocational or trade schools are ineligible.)
Enroll or be enrolled as a full-time student. (A minimum 12 credit hours for undergraduate and 9 credit hours for graduate.)
Scholarship applications are evaluated based on the following criteria:
Proven academic merit as reflected in GPA and answer to essay question.
Demonstrated need for financial assistance as exhibited by family's gross income, size of family, and other financial need.
Demonstrated community involvement as reflected in the application.
Matching Institutions
Our post-secondary partners help foster our mission by matching the scholarships that we award, leveraging more than 90 percent of our scholarship funds annually.
The Hispanic Development Fund recognizes that many individuals and organizations in our Kansas City Metro area want to support Hispanic students in pursuing a post-secondary education. Many of these individuals and organizations have chosen to contribute their funds to the HDF Scholarship Program in order to provide a scholarship in honor of an individual, organization or company.
