News & Events
Belmonte Wins Women's Forum Educational Award
photo credit: Michele ForstenFor her "superior qualifications, accomplishments and commitment to education," Evita Belmonte, a junior at CityTech, has been honored with the 2007 Women's Forum Educational Award.
The award honors women who overcome severe obstacles and strive to complete their undergraduate education after a hiatus in their lives. Belmonte certainly has met that requirement. "My parents, my siblings and I lived through some of the worst of times," she explains, "with accidents and illness testing the resolve and economic sustainability of our family and of our ever-changing community."
Despite her innate drive and intellectual curiosity, Belmonte's path to college was not a smooth one. After graduating with special awards from All Saints High School in Brooklyn, she enrolled in a nearby private university but had to cut her studies short. Specifically, because of economic challenges, she couldn't afford to continue.
After a period of uncertainty, she joined a music group called Life USA, which became one of the most successful music groups in the Tri-State area. For eight years, she performed with the seven-member group as a "lead singer trinity" with two colleagues. In addition, and often simultaneously while singing, Belmonte played percussion, trumpet or guitar with the instrumental section, performing and recording show tunes and Top 40 chart selections. "We had our ups and downs as recording artists," she explains, "but the fact is that being an instrumentalist and singer was not a bad way to spend the better part of my youth."
Belmonte describes herself as "a citizen of the world," based on her heritage alone. She is proud of her mixed American origins on both sides of the family -- her Native American ancestry with the Seminole, Cherokee and Cataba-Sioux Indigenous Nations combined with her African, European and Asian background.
When she asked her parents how she came to be named Evita, she received two different answers. "My mother mentioned the famous Argentinean political figure Eva Duarte Peron, affectionately called Evita by the people," she explains. "My father, on the other hand, took a more biblical approach, saying that my name referred to Eve, the first woman on earth, and 'vita,' which comes from the Latin root meaning 'life.' I'm delighted with both explanations."
Belmonte's earliest role models were, she says, "my beloved parents. My siblings and I were always encouraged to participate in their conversations or intellectual debates. The thinking and speaking skills I developed later helped me become informed, involved and socially active."
These early family discussions spurred Belmonte, who while raising her own family became a community activist. She has served as president of John Bowne High School's Parents Association and the Queens High School Confederation of Parents Associations. These roles contributed to her election as the Borough of Queens High Schools representative on the citywide Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council (CPAC).
Word spread throughout many citywide parents and teachers’ leadership organizations regarding Belmonte's effective leadership and interpersonal skills while she served as a facilitator for training workshops developed by the New York Urban League and United Federation of Teachers. These sessions helped develop effective School Leadership Teams in various schools throughout the city. Her natural and learned abilities as a leader and effective communicator contributed to her appointment by Borough President Helen Marshall in 2002 to represent Queens on the Board of Education's Panel for Educational Policy. Her charge was to help parents have more of a voice in the education of their children.
At a panel meeting to which she invited the community, she urged attendees to "participate in the system as fully as you can whether you have children in it or not." And participate they did, in ways that strengthened their schools and helped their children as well. Belmonte continues serving as the co-chair of the Parent Advisory Council at Queens Borough Hall.
Belmonte's two daughters are proud products of the public school system. Angelina has attended Nassau Community College and currently works for the Queens Library System. Her aspiration is to study law. Rosa, an honors graduate of SUNY Cobleskill with an associate degree in animal science, is now in her second year at Cornell University where she is pursuing her bachelor's degree in animal science.
Both daughters support Belmonte's goal of earning an undergraduate degree in technology teacher education from City Tech. "After graduation," she relates, "as long as my health holds up, getting a master's degree may be the next step in my lifelong education plan. The possibilities are limitless."
The Women's Forum Educational Award of $5,000 has enabled her to catch up on bills, assist family members financially and enjoy a very happy and leisurely summer. Relaxing doesn't come easy to her. "Being a full-time college student, working full-time as an administrative assistant in the Office of the President at York College and keeping active as a Queens community leader is very challenging," she says.
At City Tech, Belmonte is also a Helena Rubinstein Foundation Scholar. This highly successful scholarship program enables women to pursue baccalaureate degrees in fields in which they are underrepresented.
A key to her success, she says, is enlisting the help of others, "People are willing to cooperate and assist you with accomplishing your common goals. As the song goes, 'I get by with a little help from my friends.'"
Founded in 1974, the Women's Forum, Inc. consists of "400 leading women in the professions, arts and business life of New York." It established its Education Fund to accomplish a unique purpose: "to encourage mature women of need to overcome adversity and the most daunting of odds in restructuring their lives for success." Certainly Evita Belmonte has more than fulfilled that expectation.
11/27/07