Stories & News
News from BASIC and stories from the students and families we work with.
Announcements
Borrego Businesses Back Local Learners
The small clear boxes at checkout counters around town are funding early literacy, the Learning Academy and scholarships. Here is where to find them.
Program Stories
Ten Years of Transforming Lives Through Reading
Since 2015, BASIC's Dolly Parton Imagination Library has mailed more than 5,000 books to Borrego Springs children. Laid end to end they would outstretch the Galleta Meadows serpent.
In the News
Literacy Blooms at the Youth and Seniors Center
The spring semester of the Latino Family Literacy Project moved into the Borrego Springs Youth and Seniors Center, and brought learning tablets with it.
Announcements
Introducing the Barbara Coates Scholarship
A new named scholarship for students on their way to becoming teachers, honoring the board member who has led BASIC's fundraising and mentored its scholars.
Scholar Stories
The Reluctant Student
Carlos Garcia says he had no particular interest in school. A scholarship changed how he saw the whole enterprise. He finished a finance degree in December 2023 and started a company before he collected it.
Scholar Stories
Ocotillo Wells, by Way of Humboldt
Jasmine Fernandez earned a degree in cultural anthropology six hundred miles north of home, then came back to the desert to work in cultural resources at Ocotillo Wells. The scholarship, she says, is why she applied to college at all.
Scholar Stories
The Hours a Scholarship Gives Back
Karen Garcia graduated from UC San Diego summa cum laude carrying four of BASIC's named scholarships. What the money bought, she says, was hours: the ones she did not have to spend working, and could spend on organic chemistry instead.
Scholar Stories
The House That Sent Three to College
Jesus Arias held the first named scholarship BASIC ever awarded. His sister Clara finished an MBA. His wife Cecilia earned a master's. Three degrees, two master's, one household, and a scholarship committee that kept saying yes.
Scholar Stories
BASIC Salutes Its College Graduates
Three BASIC scholars who finished college through a pandemic: an ELD teacher returning to the summer Learning Academy, a magna cum laude graduate, and a newly licensed commercial pilot.
Announcements
Circle of Art Returns After a Two-Year Hibernation
The juried fine art show and sale comes back to Christmas Circle on March 12 and 13, 2022, and every dollar goes to the children of Borrego.
