Fabiola Moreno Ruelas

During her junior and senior years at Gonzales High School, Fabiola Moreno Ruelas wanted to go to college. She just didn’t think she would make it.

Ruelas worried about how she would pay for college, and didn’t know if she was prepared. Her family had experienced their share of hardship. She saw her father deported, and her family routinely struggled with housing and basic needs. Nor had anyone else in her family attended college.

“The only stories I heard were of fellow students who had come home, had failed, got on academic probation. I really wanted to go to college, but I never thought I’d make it through,” Ruelas said.

Now a college sophomore at San Diego State University, Ruelas is confident that she is going to succeed. Not only that, she’s committed to helping other students in her community do the same.

Using funds she received from a car accident settlement, Ruelas launched a scholarship fund for Gonzales High School students. She gave four $500 scholarships in 2019 and is planning to make new awards in 2020. She is also hoping to launch an alumni network program in Spring 2020 to connect high school students in her community with college students who can help answer questions, provide motivation/support and encourage them to apply.

Ruelas was inspired to launch her scholarship fund by the generous college scholarships she received from others in Gonzales, a town that isn’t necessarily wealthy but has a strong culture of supporting its students. She also wishes she had someone she could have talked to who was succeeding in college during her years of self doubt and worry - and wants to provide that for other students in her community.

Ruelas gives credit to UC Santa Cruz’s Educational Partnership Center GEAR UP program for helping her get into college.

“The trips I took with GEAR UP were the only reason I stepped out of Monterey Bay and got a chance to see what else is out there. I wouldn’t have known what else there is, that there is another world out there. The first trip we took was to Hartnell College [in Salinas]. It’s only 20 minutes away [from Gonazales] but I had never been there.”

GEAR UP really made an impact for Ruelas in her junior year. Ruelas said that GEAR UP reinforced the idea that college is for everybody. “I started to think that maybe I could do college!” she says.

In her senior year, Ruelas decided that she definitely wanted to pursue college. GEAR UP helped her fill out applications, made sure she took her SAT/ACT tests, and ensured that she had all the necessary information she needed.

“We would go into the [GEAR UP] room and work on applications. The staff were so great, giving us mentorship and support,” she says.

Ruelas isn’t sure what would have happened if she hadn’t been a part of GEAR UP. “I don’t want any student to wait until it’s too late to realize they can go to college,” she said. “I want students to have the notion they can go, even in middle school.”

Ruelas wants other students to know that they can make it to and through college.” She started the Ruelas Scholarship Foundation and is launching the alumni network “to help them know that there’s more out there and give them the support and information they need to step out.”

Ruelas’ scholarship fund has received national attention with articles published in newspapers across California and even in Florida. KSBW featured her scholarship awards on a recent newscast.

She’s used the notoriety to raise even more money for the Ruelas Scholarship Foundation, raising more than $2,000 in funds from her local connections and receiving $5,000 from an organization in Oxnard. The Ruelas Scholarship Foundation has now grown to more than $11,000.

“I’m excited that it’s grown so much,” she says. “I want to reach more students in California and keep impacting. I want to spread the word that college is possible.”

The Educational Partnership Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz increases access to higher education for underrepresented students across the Monterey Bay, Pajaro Valley, and Silicon Valley. The EPC is a part of the Undergraduate Education division at UC Santa Cruz and serves students and their families who face significant barriers to college-going, such as being low-income, the first generation in their families to go to college, and those whose primary language is other than English. The EPC relies upon generous community support in order to offer ten programs that together help more than 11,200 students each year reach and succeed in college.

“I am truly inspired by Fabiola’s story,” says Maria Rocha Ruiz, Executive Director of the Educational Partnership Center at UC Santa Cruz. “Fabiola embodies the mission of the EPC with her passion for making college dreams a reality for students in her community. I couldn’t be more proud of what she is doing, and that EPC was part of her pathway.”

“The Educational Partnership Center is making a phenomenal difference in the lives of students by creating a pipeline to higher education” says Richard Hughey, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education (UE). “It’s a natural fit for the EPC to be a part of UE. When I hear stories such as Fabiola’s, I am reminded of how supporting the EPC creates opportunities for underrepresented students to access college and succeed once there.”