How Two Mothers Inspired a Gift

Stella Clark once had a student who was forced to sneak into his grandmother’s nursing home at night to sleep on the floor because he had nowhere else to go.

Clark, who founded the Modern Language Studies department at Cal State San Marcos, recalls many students who struggled to make ends meet while they attended college.

“The Cal State schools have a lot of students who work incredibly hard just to stay afloat,” she said. “A lot of them have no support system, they’re the first people in their families to go to college. They have a need through no fault of their own.”

Stella and her husband, José, have found a way to help some of those students in need by establishing the Consuelo Teichert and Celia Pineiro Endowed Scholarship at CSUSM. The scholarship honors the memory of each of their mothers and is awarded each semester to students pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s in Spanish. The first scholarships were awarded this fall to Rocío Flores and Nancy Martínez.

“We wanted to help somebody who may have to quit college because he or she could not afford the books,” Stella said.