Los Angeles, CA : MacArthur Fellow and National Medal of the Arts Winner Sandra Cisneros will be honored at the 21st Annual Lanterns Awards, the primary fundraiser for Motivating Our Students Through Experience (MOSTe), a nonprofit with the mission to mentor and empower girls from low-income areas of Los Angeles County to become the next generation of college-educated women.
Cisneros’ classic coming-of-age novel, “The House on Mango Street,” has sold over six million copies, has been translated into over twenty languages, and is required reading in elementary, high school, and universities across the nation. Cisneros has also fostered the careers of many aspiring and emerging writers through two non-profits she founded: the Macondo Foundation, which celebrates its 26th anniversary in 2021, and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation, which ran for fifteen years.
The determined young scholars of MOSTe resemble the narrator of Cisneros’ novel. As young women of color from low-income backgrounds, they must overcome many obstacles to graduate from college, including equity gaps that have widened during COVID-19. Funds raised at the Lanterns Awards will help MOSTe support these resilient young women to stay on track toward their college goals, so they can develop into the resourceful leaders the community needs in the future.
As of 2020, MOSTe has supported hundreds of girls in Los Angeles to go to college, graduate, and pursue successful careers. From middle school to college, MOSTe offers girls a positive community to build confidence and explore interests, and provides caring mentors to guide their growth.
“Sandra’s writing and activism are a deep source of inspiration for our work,” says MOSTe Executive Director Amy Ludwig. “Greatness should not be limited by zip code. We must continue to invest in the education of these promising young women.”
