Frank Alvarez, President of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Aims To Increase First Degree Attainment In Latino Households

When Latino students and parents first meet Frank Alvarez, the President and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, (HSF) Alvarez knows they are assuming he was a “brainiac” who had an easy – or at least traditional – educational trajectory. They are in for a surprise. ”I tell them I graduated high school with less than a 2.0 average,” says Alvarez, with a smile.

A third-generation Mexican American, the man in charge of the largest Latino scholarship organization in the country dropped out of community college and returned only years later, after volunteering in the Army during Vietnam. Once he returned, though, he turned his life around, and he credits it all to education. Now his job is to spread the word – and help Latino students get there.

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