At the end of August, former President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Airbnb CEO and Co-founder Brian Chesky announced the third cohort of their Voyager Scholarship. Three of the recipients are Austin residents: Jose Sebastian Saltos Potes, Eric Veal Jr. and Frank Ward.
The Obama Foundation’s Voyager Scholarship finances juniors in college who want to go into public service. The two-year program includes up to $50,000 in financial aid and funding for a work-travel experience.
Ward was working as program director at a Union League Boys & Girls Clubs’ summer camp when he told his director he was accepted for the scholarship.
“We both just started running around the forest, and we were pretty happy about it,” Ward said. “Coming from where I come from, the idea of receiving scholarships and people believing in your ability to achieve greatness, it’s not rare, but it’s almost movie-like.”
Veal said he was super excited and started screaming when he found out he was awarded the Voyager Scholarship. He called his mother, who is a teacher and was driving home from work.
“She had to pull over,” he said.
Saltos Potes said he was surprised when he found out.
“It was really amazing,” Saltos Potes said. “I was like, ‘Am I reading this right?’”
Like Saltos Potes, many of this year’s 100 Voyager Scholarship recipients are interested in exploring mental health after graduating high school during Covid-19, according to officials in a statement.
During Saltos Potes’ freshman year, studying biological sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago, he researched mental health among LGBTQ groups, specifically in the Latino community.
The reason Saltos Potes said he applied for the Voyager Scholarship is because he had done a lot of research and data analysis on mental health, but the scholarship would allow him to take more action through the work-travel trips and provide mentorships to give him guidance.
“I actually want to do something,” Saltos Potes said. “I actually want to try to help this issue.”
Ward, who’s studying English secondary education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said he has wanted to be a teacher since he was a freshman in high school, largely inspired by his own educators.
“I’m really excited about being in a classroom and being able to give back and instill the same guidance that I was given,” Ward said. “Teachers really guided me and woke me back up and gave me a lot of perspective. I just want to make sure I can do the same thing for other people.”
Veal – who’s pursuing political science and secondary education, plus a minor in public policy at the University of Michigan – said the application process made him think about what he wants to do with public service and how to help his communities.
“Education is super important to me,” he said. “The way we’re educating students and what we’re educating them on is something that I find interesting, something that has really been my passion.”
Bon voyage
Saltos Potes, Veal and Ward will all take their work-travel experiences next summer, including a $10,000 stipend and free Airbnb housing. While none of the three applicants have any concrete plans yet, they have ideas about where their travels might take them, or what they want to explore.
Saltos Potes said he might go somewhere in South America. Veal said he is considering Washington D.C., Australia or the Netherlands to study educational policies and systems.
Ward said he wants to explore academic inequity during his trip. He has the idea of bringing a back-to-school drive overseas to help kids in another country gain access to school supplies and backpacks.
But travel opportunities don’t stop there for Voyager Scholarship awardees. After graduating, they also receive an annual $2,000 Airbnb travel credit for 10 years to allow them to broaden their horizons and connections.
Recipients also receive mentorship through a network of leaders. In addition to having access to an ongoing speaker series over the next two years, scholarship awardees are in the process of being paired with their mentors. They filled out surveys to give input into what kind of experience they wanted their mentor to have and topics they were interested in learning more about from their mentor.
Networking with other leaders is what Saltos Potes, Veal and Ward say they are most excited for about the Voyager Scholarship.
“That network of knowing other change makers, knowing other people who are pushing for a better tomorrow and a better today,” Veal said, “I think is one thing that I’m really the most excited for.”
Ward is also looking forward to “getting to know people, asking questions about their lives, forming relationships and establishing connections,” he said. “I love conversation, so I’m excited about that aspect of it.”
After graduation, Voyager Scholarship awardees will have access to the Obama Foundation’s resources and programming. They will also get to meet Barack Obama and Chesky – who funded the Voyager Scholarship with a $100 million personal contribution to the Obama Foundation.
“When Michelle, Brian and I launched the Voyager Scholarship in 2022, we were excited to see what young people with a passion for public service could do when given the right support,” said former President Obama in a statement. “The past two cohorts have shown tremendous passion, curiosity, and collaboration – all while working hard across their college campuses.”
Chesky added in the statement, “We created the Voyager Scholarship to help the next generation of leaders build bridges and develop the tools needed to take on the next generation of challenges.”