Reach for the Future: A Chicago Scholars Celebration

blue background with picture of the Chicago skyline and an outline drawing of a graduate.

Reach for the Future: A Chicago Scholars Celebration will feature cocktails and heavy hors d’oeuvres, networking with fellow Chicago Scholars supporters, and a fireside chat featuring a group of current Chicago Scholars and our keynote speaker, Alejandra Campoverdi, author of FIRST GEN. The event will be Emceed by Grace Rodi, Chicago Scholars Mentor and the current Miss Illinois USA.

Reach for the Future is the evening of November 13 at Walden Chicago (2415 W. Walnut St., Chicago, IL 60612). Cocktail attire suggested.

“Onsite left me with a huge sense of accomplishment and security. That was huge for me.“

Our Keynote Speaker

ALEJANDRA CAMPOVERDI is a nationally recognized women’s health advocate, bestselling author, founder, producer, and former White House aide to President Obama.

Alejandra’s award-winning memoir, FIRST GEN, examines the emotional toll of social mobility on those she refers to as “First and Onlys.” A national bestseller, FIRST GEN is the winner of the California Independent Booksellers Alliance (CALIBA) Martin Cruz Smith Award, and was longlisted for the Outstanding Works of Literature (OWL) Award for the First Year Experience. FIRST GEN is also the 2024 Opportunity Matters Book Club selection for the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE), a national book club for first-generation and low-income students at colleges and universities across the country.

Previously, Alejandra served in the Obama White House as the first White House Deputy Director of Hispanic Media. She produced and appeared in the groundbreaking PBS documentary Inheritance, and founded the LATINOS & BRCA awareness initiative in partnership with Penn Medicine’s Basser Center for BRCA.

Alejandra holds a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and graduated cum laude from USC. She currently serves on the boards of the California Community Foundation and Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, and is a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Communication Leadership and Policy.