Day 6 Setting Up Scholarships

The San Jose Conservation Corps was where my younger brother worked as a recycling-truck driver and completed his high school credits before he unexpectedly passed away this October. Hours after his death, we decided that we wanted to set up a memorial scholarship in his name to help the other students at his program, who planned to pursue college after they graduated. Our coworkers, neighbors, friends, and family have been enormously generous and have donated enough funds to provide several students with college scholarships for at least the next few years in my brother's name.

Today, my mom and I went down to meet the director of the Corps and my brother's old supervisor to discuss the scholarships. It was surreal to walk around the halls where he went to school and worked up until he died. His supervisor showed us the huge recycling truck he drove, and she told us funny stories about him learning to drive it.

We will hand out the first of the scholarships on the day he was supposed to graduate, January 25th. Part of me feels immensely sad that I am not going to get to see him graduate. I have been looking forward to watching him receive his hard-earned diploma -- finally at the age 28 -- after he overcame many challenges. When he called to tell me he passed the math portion of his exit exam, saying he felt like he won the lottery because he was going to graduate, for the first time in my life I believed that a miracle had truly occured.

My mom will be collecting his diploma instead. I am trying to imagine myself at that graduation ceremony focusing on the fact that I am happy we can honor his memory by helping others with scholarships. I think he would have liked knowing that he was helping out, too.