Jodi’s Light Continues On…

Jodi Maroney was a volunteer and U.S. marine veteran who dedicated herself to San Diego Refugee Tutoring for five years. Her warm smile, willing heart, and generous spirit were familiar to the tutors and students alike and showed when she came early, left late, and made sure she tutored some of our most difficult students. She brought light with her wherever she went. She is, and will continue to be, greatly missed.

SDRT established the Jodi Maroney Memorial Fund to honor Jodi, her family, and her friends. This fund pays for scholarships for our high school seniors and college students pursuing higher education and extracurricular opportunities for our younger students (such as coding, summer camps, etc.). It has opened up avenues for SDRT to advocate for our students beyond tutoring and our usual programming.

This year, SDRT awarded six scholarships from $750 to $2000 to high school seniors and college students. We are exceptionally proud of how much they have accomplished and overcome, especially through the pandemic. They are all incredible young people, and a few of them have allowed us to share a few words about their academic progress. To respect our students’ privacy, we will refer to them by their first initial.

E will be starting her second year at San Diego City Community College. She will be entering their cosmetology program and aspires to start her own business. This photo was taken in 2019 at a specially sponsored extracurricular event where a group of our students were able to go horseback riding!

H will be starting her third year at San Diego State University. Her goal is to enter the medical field as a registered nurse or pursue medical school and psychiatry. In this photo, H is accepting her Jodi Maroney scholarship at our ice cream social this summer.

R is going to start her first year at San Diego State University and has plans to pursue either law or a physician’s assistant degree. In this photo, she is accepting her Jodi Maroney scholarship at our ice cream social as well.

If you would like to contribute to the Jodi Maroney Memorial Fund to support the sustainability of these higher education scholarships, please give to SDRT through this website which has been specially designated for this fund. Thank you.