Mission & History
Our Mission: Opening Doors. Elevating Futures.
Every year, Wilson College Prep graduates exceptional young people who are ready for college, career, and leadership. They have the ambition, talent, and determination to build brighter futures. What many still need is a donor willing to help close the financial gap between acceptance and access.
The Wilson Legacy Scholarship gives donors a direct way to open that door. Your contribution helps motivated students from underserved communities move from high school graduation to college enrollment with greater confidence and support. More than a gift toward tuition, your generosity invests in hope, dignity, economic mobility, and the future leaders, innovators, and community builders who will strengthen our shared community.
Create Lasting Change
For donors who want their giving to create lasting change, education is one of the most powerful investments available. For inner-city high school graduates, scholarship support can be the difference between postponing college and stepping confidently into the future they have worked to earn.
Open a Path to Opportunity
By giving to the Wilson Legacy Scholarship, donors help extend Wilson College Prep’s mission to provide an AVID schoolwide education that develops compassionate individuals who become agents of change in their lives and communities. AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a nationwide college and career readiness program designed to support students in the “academic middle” particularly those who are first-generation college students or from low-income families – to succeed in rigorous advanced courses like Honors and AP.
Create Momentum That Will Last for Generations
Need-based scholarships do more than help pay tuition. They build confidence, encourage persistence, increase graduation rates, and create momentum that can change families and communities for generations.
Donors can give with confidence. As a fiscally sponsored initiative through the Phoenix Union Foundation for Education in partnership with the Arizona Community Foundation, the Wilson Legacy Scholarship is built on transparency, sustainability, community partnership, and measurable impact. All contributions are made through the Phoenix Union Foundation for Education, a 501(c)(3) entity (86-523265) that supports the Phoenix Union High School District’s mission of “Preparing Every Student for Success in College, Career, and Life.”
Our History: A Community Legacy, Built by Wilson
The Wilson Legacy Scholarship was founded in 2025 by Joe and Laura Hauer to invite donors into a legacy of student opportunity. Joe, a former Wilson science teacher, built lasting relationships with students, families, and the broader Wilson business community during his time at the school.
Through the Wilson Technology and Engineering Program, students earned recognition for award-winning work in engineering and solar technology. The program was honored by the Valley Forward Association at its Annual Environmental Excellence Awards for Outstanding Environmental Education and Communication. Wilson students went on to build solar electric boats and vehicles and compete against major universities, including Stanford and MIT.
Many of those students continued to college and built successful careers as business executives, lawyers, medical professionals, and community leaders—a reminder of what becomes possible when students are given the support to pursue their potential.
When Joe and Laura met with the Executive Director of the Phoenix Union Foundation for Education and Wilson College Prep leadership, they shared a clear vision: the scholarship should belong to the Wilson community and be sustained by those who believe in its students. They asked Wilson students and staff to help name it. On May 21, 2025, student representatives and staff voted to call it the Wilson Legacy Scholarship.