Wish Farms was recently contacted by an old friend, Georgina Riviera-Singletary. She asked if we could contribute to Run Towards Justice, a 5k race benefitting migrant families. We happily obliged, but it got us thinking how an investment in a young person’s future can pay off exponentially.
Nearly 20 years ago, we established the Wishnatzki Family Migrant Scholarship Fund at the University of South Florida. Georgina was in fact one of the stand-out recipients of the scholarships in 2006, 2008, and 2013.
Born in Homestead, FL, she was the child of migrant farm workers. As a teen, she dropped out of high school and started a family at the age of 16. A program designed to support migrant farmworkers recruited her for education and provided her an opportunity to earn her GED which she successfully completed at 21. Since then, Georgina has earned associate, bachelors, masters, specialist, Ph.D. and most recently, MBA college degrees.
Currently, she is a tenure track professor at Saint Leo University. As she often states, “I know success is achievable when the appropriate support and mentoring is provided.”
Her passion for paying forward the opportunity to students like herself led her to a twenty-one-year career in education. She continues to be an advocate for the migrant farmworker community. She uses her position of researcher to educate the public of the challenges migrant families face. Georgina has raised over $60,000 and provided education scholarships for students to support the costs of college attendance.
Wish Farms is honored to have played a small part in Georgina’s career, and proud to hear that she is improving and empowering those around her!
