Boise State senior Ximena Bustillo has made the absolute most of her university experience. She traveled to seven states for speech and debate competitions; was selected as one of 14 participants in the Politico Journalism Institute in Washington D.C.; was one of 23 participants in the Fund for American Studies Journalism summer program in D.C.; was one of four interns at the Washington Times; traveled to the College Media Convention in 2018 for personal and professional development training, where an article she wrote placed in the top five for best general feature; attended Idaho Press Club events as a member; had press passes to the Idaho Capitol and more.
She was afforded broad opportunities because she received scholarships, including the True Blue Scholarship.
“Scholarship support has allowed me to have a greater focus on my academics and extracurricular activities without needing to worry about putting food on the table or making next month’s rent. This means that I can spend more time developing personally and professionally. I had jobs because I wanted them and was able to apply my major beyond just needing to make money,” she said.
The True Blue Scholarship helps support Idaho residents for four years based primarily on financial need and merit. In honor of the inauguration of Boise State’s seventh president, Dr. Marlene Tromp, donors made pledges to the President’s True Blue Endowed Scholarship to ensure long-term student support. Helping to ensure that great potential is not left unrealized for Idaho students because of an inability to bear the cost of a university education is a high priority for Boise State.
Bustillo is graduating in May with a bachelor’s degree in political science and in media arts.
“Coming into Boise State, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do but I did know that I had an interest and passion for current event education. This means I enjoy both learning about items happening in the world and teaching others, too. There is nothing better for this than journalism and political science degrees,” she said.
Bustillo worked for the Arbiter student newspaper for three years and currently is a breaking news reporter for the Idaho Statesman in Boise. Eventually, she would like to report on politics and policy.
Help build the endowment at boi.st/trueblue