BSP Program Coordinator - Mike Garcia Scholarship Recipient

BSP Program Coordinator, Veronica Ortega (left) was a two-time Mike Garcia Scholarship recipient

Veronica Ortega is BSP’s Northern California Financial Capabilities Program Coordinator. In her role, she is responsible for overseeing and expanding the Financial Capability Program by enhancing curriculum development, outreach, marketing and leading various FinCap components in order to improve the quality of life for low-to-moderate income individuals and families by increasing their skills and access to opportunities to reach financial stability.

Veronica’s father, Mario has worked as a janitor for as long as she can remember. He has been a BSP program participant and completed ADVANCE Vocational ESL programs, receiving certification. 

“I remember going on-site to my father’s workplace as a child and first learning of how hard he worked,” Veronica recalled.

In 2015 while Veronica was a student at San Jose State University, her father brought home a flyer he received from his BSP’s courses, highlighting the Mike Garcia Scholarship program. Veronica and her family researched the opportunity, which helps offset tuition and educational costs for the children of property service workers.

With the rising cost of education and diminishing public funding, college scholarships become even more critical. Nearly all of the children of property service workers are first-generation college students. Every night, their parents work hard to keep offices clean and safe for tenants and office workers across the state. The majority dream of their children attending college, but unfortunately the combination of their low-wages and the increasing cost of tuition prevents many from providing the financial support needed for their children to attend college.

BSP established the Mike Garcia Scholarship to honor the former SEIU-USWW President’s legacy and vision. The organization continues to provide the financial support for the children of janitors to obtain a higher education.

This type of financial aid could not have come at a better time for Veronica’s family. The same year, a fire destroyed their apartment and the family was displaced. At college, Veronica was having a hard time because of this upheaval. Though as time passed, she found that the adversity gave her more willpower to strive for success. 

Veronica applied to BSP’s Mike Garcia Scholarship and became a recipient two years in a row--her junior and senior years. The funding helped pay for her summer semester classes that were needed to finish her double degree, and she received a B.A. in Social Work and Spanish from San Jose State University within three years--which is often difficult within overcrowded California State universities. 

Upon graduation in 2018, Veronica engaged in work roles with Santa Clara County in voter registration, and also in the human resources industry. Though she eventually found that her professional and personal desire was to help her own community. 

In 2019, Veronica accepted a position as BSP's San Jose Worker Engagement Specialist. In this role, coordinated both immigrant integration and community advancement programming including ESL, citizenship, and digital literacy classes.

Veronica feels that her past work in voter registration and community engagement helped to prepare her for the worker engagement role with BSP, because her background in civic engagement was vital for BSP programs. 

She was involved in engaging program participants by doing outreach at work sites, job fairs, and other events. She thrived in this role for two years, before accepting her current position as BSP’s Northern California Financial Capabilities Specialist. 

In her current role, Veronica first discovered that her story as a BSP Mike Garcia Scholarship recipient was important with workers when she was conducting a meeting with program participants, and one of the property service worker’s eyes lit up when she heard Veronica’s story. 

“I always let the workers know that my father is a janitor and that I am a college graduate. When I tell BSP participants that I am a Mike Garcia Scholarship recipient, I make sure to communicate that I am just like them, and that this educational opportunity is available to all BSP workers and their children,” said Veronica. 

She finds many workers view her story with admiration and learn that a higher education is possible. 

“I’m a janitor’s daughter. If I can go to college and get a double degree, I let all BSP program participants know that their kids can do it too.” 

Please donate to the Mike Garcia Scholarship and help make college a reality for others like Veronica.