Lara-Peraza Empowerment Fund

The Peraza and Lara Families want to provide scholarships to students that embody the ideals of our deceased family members and seek to honor their memory by pursuing similar careers that forged their background. The first member of the family is Brian Lara. He graduated with a Business and Management degree from St. Francis College in New York. Growing up, he didn't see many latinos/as in Business and Finance roles, particularly those in banking and investing and therefore pursued a career in this field. He felt that knowledge about core financial principles and advanced wealth building practices were missing from his community and therefore helped many families of disadvantaged backgrounds become more financially independent, build wealth and reach greater financial stability. Aside from contributing to his community through work, he also went above and beyond to give back through other charitable institutions such as Habitat For Humanity. His dedication to helping others, and his passion to excel students of color in careers in finance made him stand out in his pursuits and therefore we seek to create a scholarship in his name to honor his memory and legacy. The second member of the family, Ana Peraza, is someone who always tried to elevate herself through education and work. She held a career in accounting before immigrating to the US and worked in any job that would put food on the table for her family. Despite now being educationally and financially disadvantaged from this change in location, language, culture and customs, she tried her best to work hard enough to provide her children with the education they needed to be more than what she could have dreamed. She always considered herself to be good with numbers and always sought to instill core financial principles to her loved ones, but there were things that eluded her. As a Latina, she grew up in a society of patriarchal divide in which men handled the finances and women took care of the children and the household. After immigrating, this changed for her and she became the person who managed the household’s finances and always sought to learn more and grow her knowledge of how to best situate her family’s wealth and legacy. It is for this reason she always advocated for young women to pursue roles in mathematics and science and therefore we want to honor her legacy by creating a scholarship in her name, Ana Peraza Math and Science Scholarship. The scholarship will seek to help young latina women from disadvantaged backgrounds who pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics.