About Us

 Our mission statement is  to help close the racial wealth gap by empowering low-to-moderate income (LMI) minority youth to engage in extracurricular activities. The objective is to provide LMI minority youth with the proper tools in efforts to increase and sustain positive engagement.  

Our vision is to share Joy by closing the racial wealth gap one child at a time.  

 Our purpose is to close the racial wealth gap by offering long-lasting solutions that enable low-to-moderate income minority youth to break the cycle of poverty and empower them to achieve positive engagement that leads to financial stability and better futures.  

Joy Oquendo Foundation has three areas of focus: microloans, extracurricular activities, and trade school scholarships. Microloans are provided as start-up costs to assist youth with entrepreneurial efforts. Extracurricular scholarships are made available to qualifying youth in efforts to keep them engaged and out of trouble. Trade school scholarships are for qualifying seniors who are not able or do not desire to go to a 4-year college.  

The Joy Oquendo Foundation, established in 2021, was founded by Sandylane Oquendo and a dedicated group of community members. The inspiration, however, came from siblings Joy Oquendo and Michael Roman Oquendo, whose vision and determination sparked the foundation’s creation.

Michael, a passionate FFA student, saw firsthand how students with limited resources often struggled to participate in programs that could shape their future. In his junior year, he applied for the National Society of High School Scholars Be More Scholarship, where his commitment to making a difference earned him a place among the nation’s top 15 finalists. Traveling to Atlanta, Michael competed and secured $10,000 in seed funding, the very foundation on which the Joy Oquendo Foundation was built.

All organizational fees were covered through Joy’s entrepreneurship initiative, “A Cup of Joy,” demonstrating her own commitment to turning ideas into impact. Together, their efforts transformed a dream into a lasting legacy.

Today, the Joy Oquendo Foundation works to create opportunities for youth, removing barriers, providing resources, and inspiring young people to pursue their goals with courage and confidence. What began as a brother-and-sister vision is now a community movement dedicated to building brighter futures.