Central Arizona College student, Claudia Mullener has been selected as the 2023-2024 Gold-Pearl Undergraduate Scholarship recipient. She will receive $2,500 this fall and another $2,500 for spring semester.

Mullener moved to Arizona from Chile seven years ago, leaving her family and friends behind. She chose to register at CAC to challenge herself, a CAC press release stated.

“As a mom and wife and maintaining a full-time job as an educator for special needs students, returning to being a student herself has not been easy,” the release stated. “However, she has been able to prove that she can make her dreams come true by obtaining a 4.0 grade point average and becoming a member of the Phi-Theta Kappa Honor Society.”

Mullener plans to transfer to the University of Arizona to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. She eventually wants to earn a PhD in English or Spanish Literature, the release stated.

Her 19-year-old son, Vicente, is a student at the CAC Maricopa Campus

“I am beyond words for being selected as the winner of the 2023 Gold Pearl Undergraduate Award that is generously donated by Dorie S. Goldman and Ronald M. Pearlstein to whom I thank enormously,” Mullener stated in the release. ”Their generous contribution is a huge help to continue my educational endeavors.”

The Gold-Pearl Undergraduate Academic Scholarship fund was established this past spring by Goldman and Pearl to support students who are members of underrepresented ethnic groups, first generation students or foster youth, the release stated. Students must be majoring in communications and English pathways or the social and behavioral/sciences pathways.

Goldman was a professor at CAC from 2001-2012 and a division chair of the communications department for two years and she served as honors thesis project adviser.