Vincent F. Biondo, Jr. Endowed Scholarship

The Vincent F. Biondo, Jr. Endowed Scholarship will provide scholarship support to first generation college students in the Educational Opportunity Program, the Compact for Success program, or those involved in the Monarch Unity Resource Center, who plan to pursue a career in public service (e.g., social work, public administration, government, nonprofit, governmental or public interest law, etc.).

If you do not meet all of these requirements in a given term, you may lose your scholarship eligibility and your scholarship may be canceled.

Requirements:

• Recipients must be residents of San Diego County.
• Recipients must have a minimum overall cumulative GPA of 3.00 out of 4.00, or the arithmetic equivalent.
• Recipients must be enrolled full-time.
• Recipients must be first generation college students.
• Recipients must be accepted to the EOP program, must be accepted to the Compact for Success program, or must be involved in the Monarch Unity Resource Center, which is open to all who wish to join.
• Recipients must intend to pursue a career in public service (i.e. social worker, public administration, government, nonprofit, governmental or public interest law, etc.).

Donor Profile:

My grandfather Antonino Biondo, at age 16, left Partanna, a small improvised village in Sicily, and walked to Naples where he boarded the Calabria, a single stack tramp steamer, for America. His extended family scratched up the fare for his 3rd class steerage ticket. I have framed the “Alien Immigrants” card he was given on arrival at Ellis Island on March 3, 1903. A job in a piano factory was followed by marriage and the birth of my father. My Dad went to first grade not speaking a word of English. He often heard the rude “there goes another dirty WOP” (without papers) while making his way around NYC to a tenement in Harlem, which was an Italian ghetto in those days. Antonino had no formal schooling but harbored an intense belief in the transformative power of education. He worked two jobs and my grandmother took in washing to send my dad to school, first at CCNY and then Medical School at Marquette. My Dad had to work and twice took a year off between terms, to make enough to continue his studies and earn his MD. I also had to work to pay for my education at SDSU and was only able to earn my Juris Doctorate degree from Stanford, with the help of a full-tuition scholarship. I want others from backgrounds like these, to have a chance to achieve their American Dream, and believe helping them get a good education, is the best way to do that.

I wish to recognize and encourage recipients who are interested in a career in Public Service. Most of my classmates at Stanford went to work to help rich people get richer and corporations get bigger and more powerful. During my 30 years as an attorney, I was a US Navy JAG Corps Lt, San Diego Deputy City Attorney, Escondido Assistant City Attorney, Carlsbad City Attorney, and the first full-time General Counsel of the San Diego County Water Authority. It was my honor to be elected as President of the City Attorney’s Department of the League of California Cities and later to represent them on the League Board of Directors. One of the best moments of my life was the first time I stood up in open court, before a Judge and jury to say, “Vincent F. Biondo, Jr.— For the People.” I tried to use my working life, to make the world a little better place and want to encourage students to do the same.

My wife Betsey and I lived modestly, worked hard, saved and invested our money, achieved “financial freedom” and were both able to take early retirements at age 55. She shares my goals of helping immigrants and their first-generation children get an education at SDSU, and in encouraging careers in Public Service. This scholarship, given in honor of my grandfather and father, is our attempt to do that.