Juan and Julia Castro Scholarship Fund
Organized by
Rodriguez Castro Family Foundation
Rodriguez Castro Family Foundation
$0
Raised of $5,000 goal
100% tax-deductibleNo fees
100% goes to scholarship recipients
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Our story
Juan Roberto Castro and Julia Maria Castro were Cuban immigrants who came to the United States with courage, hope, and an understanding born of personal experience of what it feels like to arrive somewhere new and need someone in your corner. They did not keep that understanding to themselves. They opened their home to families who came after them, helped them navigate the paperwork and uncertainty of building a new life in America, and treated every person who crossed their threshold with the same warmth and dignity they would offer their own family.
Julia Maria Castro spent nearly two decades as Director of Immigration Services at Catholic Charities in Jacksonville, Florida. She sat across the table from frightened families, navigated bureaucracy on behalf of people who had no one else advocating for them, and made the complicated simple and the frightening manageable. Juan Roberto Castro carried that same conviction — that those who have found their footing have a responsibility to reach back and help the next person find theirs.
Our goal
Juan Roberto Castro and Julia Maria Castro were Cuban immigrants who spent their lives helping those who came after them — opening their home to new arrivals, guiding families through the uncertainty of building a new life in America, and treating every person who crossed their threshold with warmth and dignity. Julia spent nearly two decades as Director of Immigration Services at Catholic Charities in Jacksonville, Florida, advocating for families who had no one else in their corner. Juan carried that same conviction that those who have found their footing have a responsibility to reach back and help the next person find theirs. Both have since passed, and this scholarship carries their names because it carries their belief: that immigration strengthens our communities, and that the most meaningful thing a person can do with their own experience is use it in service of others.
Our goal is to raise $5,000 to fund five $1,000 scholarships awarded to naturalized citizens and first-generation Americans pursuing an undergraduate degree for the first time. Recipients are selected based on financial need and a genuine commitment to service — we are looking for students who are already, in some quiet way, giving back to the communities around them.
This is the first year of what we intend to be a permanent, annual scholarship. Our longer term goal is to establish the Rodriguez-Castro Family Foundation as a formal private foundation, at which point this scholarship will be funded in perpetuity from the foundation's endowment. For now we are asking family, friends, and community members to help us get the first five students across the finish line.