Mama Verang and Lola Remi Scholarship Fund

“This scholarship honors two of my very different lolas, both teachers in their own way,” said Lazo, “Mama Verang raised nine children as a single mother. She was also a high school teacher in the Philippines and brought her entire family to the states for a better life. On the other hand, Lola Remi never finished high school and worked hard as a tailor and farmer. With her kind-heartedness and ambition, she put all of her seven children through college in order for them to build a better life. Both were advocates of higher education and this fund is in their legacy.” According to a recent San José Spotlight article on high school dropout rates in Santa Clara County due to the pandemic, “Filipino students saw the highest increase in dropout rates among high school students in Santa Clara County schools. In 2019-20, an additional 160 Filipino students left school without a degree compared with the previous school year, Massaro said. That increase, from 37 to 197 dropouts out of the nearly 1,000 Filipino high school students in the county, represented a jump in their dropout rate to nearly 20% from about 4%.”