The Edie Benites Charitable Foundation provided $458,000 to establish the Edie Benites Endowed Memorial Scholarship Fund with the Fresno State Alumni Association.
Beginning in the 2024-25 academic year, the Edie Benites Endowed Memorial Scholarship Fund will provide five annual scholarships of $3,000 each ($15,000 per year) to Fresno State students in perpetuity. Criteria includes a demonstrated interest in volunteering with the Mexican-American, Latino, Chicano and/or Hispanic communities and a 2.0 GPA. Preference is given to graduates from Parlier High School, as well as to students majoring in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and/or social sciences students.
The Chicano Alumni Club posthumously honored Benites at its annual Cinco de Mayo Scholarship Banquet on May 5 at Rivendell Event Center in Fresno. Founded in 1977, and now operating under the auspices of the Fresno State Alumni Association, the Chicano Alumni Club has awarded scholarships to deserving Fresno State students for the past four decades.
Eduvyes “Edie” Benites passed away on Oct. 8, 2021. She was born in 1946 in Juchupila, Zacatecas, Mexico to Gilberta and Eliodoro Benites, as the second of nine siblings. She immigrated to the United States as a first grader and quickly excelled in Parlier Unified schools.
Benites later attended Fresno State and became a political advocate who promoted education. Her family said her work ethic was exemplary and she lived modestly so she could maximize her generosity.
Benites’ surviving sisters, Hopie Serna and Amparo Yanez, and additional family members attended the scholarship banquet to accept an award honoring Benites.
“Edie’s legacy will live on in the hearts of her family and in the minds of those students assisted and inspired with the Edie Benites Memorial Scholarship Fund,” Serna said on behalf of the family.
“This generous and monumental bequest provided by the Edie Benites Charitable Foundation will uplift Fresno State students, including graduates from Parlier High School, for generations to come,” said Manuel Olgin, president and founding member of the Chicano Alumni Club. Olgin’s wife, Frances Peña Olgin (also a founding member), was a childhood friend of the Benites family.
“Legacy gifts such as this provide incredible support to uplift Fresno State students,” said Jacquelyn Glasener, executive director of the Fresno State Alumni Association. “Scholarship gifts such as this help in closing the financial gaps that nearly 80% of Fresno State students experience.”
For information on the Chicano Alumni Club and the Fresno State Alumni Association, visit www.fresnostatealumni.com.
