The Hispanic Business Student Association (HBSA) has recently developed its first scholarship, which will become available April 1.

The newly established scholarship is open to Hispanic students of all disciplines and will award two students the sum of $1,000 each from the annual scholarship fund.

The application period runs until May 15. Applicants are required to be of Hispanic heritage and enrolled as full-time undergraduate students at the UW.

The primary criteria will not be grades, although a GPA minimum of 2.8 is needed to apply. The focus will instead lay on community involvement or work experience.

The five-person HBSA scholarship committee will select the scholarship awardees. The committee was chosen to be representative of the Hispanic community in Seattle and includes three UW alumnae.

Two of the scholarship founders were Yaneth González and Connie Cerna, UW Business School alumnae who now hold the two chairs of the advisory board for the committee. Together with former HBSA president and senior Tatiana Deras, director of the advisory board, they are the team behind the scholarship program.

"I came up with the idea [of the scholarship] one day when I saw a friend of mine that used to be in HBSA," Cerna said in an E-mail. "She used to be very involved at the beginning of the year. Then she disappeared for a while. ... It turned out she had to help her family, and her family couldn't afford her school anymore."

González also knew Hispanic students struggling to make tuition payments.

"A lot of my friends, including myself, had to drop out because of economic reasons," she said. "We know that once people leave, the probability of coming back is small."

The scholarship is intended to help students in need fund and continue their education. It will be given to students who either have been active as an advocate for the Hispanic community or are working a minimum of 20 hours a week to support their studies.

"Working 20-plus hours, you probably don't have time to be active," González said.

Applicants will be required to submit information about their current studies and future plans, as well as complete short essay questions about their community involvement or work experience. The committee will consider both aspects during the selection process.

"It's a melding of the two," said committee member Raul Anaya, a UW graduate and assistant director of the Educational Opportunity Program.

The association behind the scholarship program, the student-run HBSA, was re-established in 2003 after being inactive for years. The organization is dedicated to providing a unique cultural experience that will develop business leaders to serve as advocates for the Hispanic community.

Today the association has about 20 active members and about 50 who occasionally participate, Deras said. There are only about 50 Hispanic students in the Business School, but anyone, regardless of heritage or major, can join the organization.

However, Hispanic heritage is required to be eligible for the scholarship. Applicants do not have to be current business majors, but must have an interest in business studies.

Unlike many awards, the HBSA scholarship is financed by students.

"It's a unique way, since all of the funds were raised by students," HBSA's Chief Marketing Executive Ana Celestino. "The fundraising started about two years ago, but it's not until today we have the funds."

Though the majority of the scholarship money comes from this student fundraising, HBSA has recently established relationships with Target, US Bank and Boeing as sponsors for the award.

Yet students enjoy organizing the fundraising events.

"We thought of a fun way to do it," Deras said, "And people love to dance!"

The result was the Havana Salsa Nights — dance nights, including a salsa class, at different clubs in Seattle. The fundraising events have been going on since fall 2005, raising close to $1,000 per night. The events will continue this spring, but the location has yet to be determined.

HBSA reminds applicants that Hispanics from all fields of study are eligible to receive the scholarship.

"I just want to encourage everyone to apply," Deras said.

Reach reporter Clara Good at news@thedaily.washington.edu.