The Car Outlet announced a comprehensive scholarship program for students pursuing higher education in the 2013/2014 academic year. The Chicago-based company, a pillar of car services in the Latino community for over 13 years, is making then $1,500 scholarships available to students who meet eligibility criteria and are selected by an external review committee. The scholarships are to be applied directly to tuition and other academic expenses. It is the company’s first formal scholarship program since its creating in 2000.

A portion of the application process asks students to describe in essay form the role that access to adequate transportation has played in their life. Research on the factors affecting immigrant earnings and job access led by the University of California, Los Angeles found that having access to a car increases the likelihood of being employed in the past year by two times.1 Similarly, the Brookings Institution has reported that only onequarter of low-income jobs in the nation’s metropolitan areas are accessible by public transportation and that workers in low-income urban communities across the country can access only about 22 percent of metropolitan jobs in low- and middle-skill industries due to lack of access to transportation.2 These findings point directly at the need for reliable transportation as a pathway to individual success and potentially an exit to poverty.

The website www.caroutletscholarship.com has been created to house all application forms, receive applications, address questions and provide information on the process and opportunity.