We’ve all seen the memes and tweets making light of 2020: the jokes about overachievers quarantining in blue jeans and how Zoom needs “wrap up” music like the Oscars. And while a little humor is so necessary when navigating this year, the truth is, it’s been really difficult. We don’t have to tell you all the ways that this pandemic has been devastating for sisters, as you likely have experienced the effects yourself. However, the Kappa Delta Foundation saw the need and wanted to help, because that’s what sisters do.

Below is a letter from Diana Alvarado, a member at Dartmouth College, whose life was turned upside-down during 2020. We’re happy that KD was able to be there for Diana in some small way this year.

Dear Kappa Delta,

First and foremost, I hope this email finds you and your loved ones safe and well. I wanted to express my sincere gratitude for the donation toward the Kappa Delta Emergency Hardship Scholarship. My name is Diana Alvarado, and I’m a proud member of Kappa Delta’s Eta Xi Chapter at Dartmouth College. I’m a rising junior at Dartmouth and aside from the time I spend in Kappa Delta, I work as the student director for a program within our school’s Center for Social Impact. I work really closely with the first-generation community at Dartmouth and I am one of 10 representatives of my class year in Dartmouth’s Hill Winds Society, an alumni-student liaison group. I’m a member of Dartmouth’s Archery Team and also work for our campus’ Tucker Center for Spiritual and Ethical Life. Needless to say, my time at Dartmouth has been enriched by many different communities of which I am a part, with KD being at the core of the inspiration for the work I do and the people I work with.

As a rising junior, I am pursuing a double major in Italian studies and cognitive science, with a focus in language acquisition. Growing up bilingual, and becoming trilingual in high school, I found myself constantly intrigued by the cognitive differences between monolingual and multilingual individuals, and how that can affect their ways of learning. Because of this and my combined passion for educational equity, I hope to pursue a career either directly in education as a teacher, or somehow in educational policy and reform. My time and experiences at Dartmouth serve as a testament that academic success can often be limited by socio-economic disparities and while there are sporadic chances to break through those barriers, there’s so much more work to be done to make higher education more accessible to students in the U.S.

My life, like that of so many others, was completely changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of the outbreak, my mom lost her job, drastically affecting our family’s main source of income. Soon after, we dealt with the emotional grief of losing both my beautiful aunt and my selfless grandmother to the virus in our native Ecuador. This caused an unbelievably hard period of both emotional and financial turmoil, causing me to withdraw from my scheduled summer term to work and provide for my family. This scholarship means that I am now able to enter my fall term with full confidence that I can cover any and all tuition expenses without needing to stress my family out about those finances. It gives me the ability to dedicate this term to emotionally process the losses I’ve faced and dedicate myself to my studies, the way I know my family would want from me.

My experience in Kappa Delta has been such a blessing in my life and was only emphasized during this difficult period. I was drawn to Kappa Delta because I noticed that the sisterhood of KD was so genuine and the interactions that sisters had with each other were so loving even when they weren’t explicitly representing KD. Since being part of Kappa Delta, I’ve grown close to so many sisters I wouldn’t have otherwise met, and though these relationships were relatively new at the beginning of the pandemic, they proved to be so meaningful to me in the long run. My sisters and national KD were among the first to offer support and condolences when my family members passed away and that love is something that cannot be fabricated or replaced. I will never forget the way my sisters were there for me and I hope to be a similar beacon of love, light and confidence to others throughout my time in college and my life as a KD. I sincerely thank you again for the opportunity to continue doing just that at the school and in the sisterhood I love so dearly.

Sincerely,

Diana Alvarado

If you or a fellow sister is in need of assistance, please don’t hesitate to opens in a new windowapply for a scholarship through the Kappa Delta Foundation. We’re here for you.