A college campus can look one way online and feel completely different in person. For a student weighing colleges hundreds of miles away, a visit is often what makes the choice clear. That is the idea behind the Breitling Out-of-State College Visit Scholarship.
This year the scholarship flew Crystal Echeverria to Washington University in St. Louis, a campus she had until then only imagined. The visit convinced her to apply, and she was offered a full scholarship. She was also accepted to UC Berkeley and Harvey Mudd.
The scholarship is managed by the Santa Barbara Foundation for young women in their junior and senior years of high school across Santa Barbara County, and it covers the airfare and lodging to visit colleges outside California, expenses that many families cannot afford. Without it, a trip like Crystal’s would not happen. “This trip not only allowed me to visit a dream school, but it also gave me a new sense of independence and possibility that I will carry with me throughout my college journey,” she wrote afterward. The fund was established by Jacqueline H. Breitling, who had seen with her own children how much a visit can shape a decision.
Valeria Pulido used her scholarship to travel farther still, to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where she toured the campus and sat in on an information session. “I especially loved experiencing the natural beauty of the university, from the lush greenery to the stunning ocean views, and learning about the rich Hawaiian culture that is such an important part of student life,” she wrote. This fall she will be attending Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles with the President’s Award.
Both are first-generation college students, the first in their families to attend a university. Crystal plans to study biomedical engineering, with a goal of developing affordable medical devices and widening access to care where it is scarce. In high school she helped start the Math Club and co-captained the volleyball team. Classmates often credit her tutoring for their own academic progress. Valeria co-captained her school’s varsity cheer team and taught more than 330 children at its youth cheer camp. In addition to founding a campus club focused on mental health and mentoring teen girls in her church, she was the Valedictorian of her class at Carpinteria High School. She plans to pursue a career in law.
These scholarships began with a donor who understood what a visit can settle in a student’s mind, and who wanted young women to have that chance for themselves. The Santa Barbara Foundation has carried that intention forward ever since. For a donor with a cause of their own in mind, the Foundation can help shape a gift that carries it out for years to come. Crystal and Valeria show what that kind of giving can set in motion.
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