About Leonor Garcia and the Scholarship
Leonor García was born in 1913 in the township of Güines of the Habana province in Cuba. She married in 1934 to Oscar Vicente Garcia and was the mother of Dr. Oscar N. García, Founding Dean of the College of Engineering at the UNT.
Her whole life was dedicated in one way or another to the pursuit of educational activities and involvement with those she could help. She strove unrelentingly to complete her own education in her native Cuba.
Though she graduated from high school after several interruptions as a teenager, it was not until years later as an adult that she completed the Juris Doctorate from the University of Havana, Cuba in 1943 - an era when few women studied at the University, and even fewer became lawyers. She was employed as a lawyer in Cuba. But before graduating from law school and while a law student, her first teaching job was home schooling their son before he entered grammar school at an advanced grade.
She and her husband immigrated to the United States in 1961. Though he was not a teacher and did not have higher education, her husband recognized the value of education and vigorously supported all of her, and later their son’s, educational endeavors.
Her professional life in this country also centered on teaching! She was the consummate outstanding teacher. Her enthusiasm glowed in sharing the knowledge of government and civics in the realm of the United States culture that she imparted to her adult student in the Program of English as a Second Language. She worked in this program some five years in College Park, Md.
A family move changed the focus of her energies from the adult arena to high school. She taught Advanced Placement Spanish Courses for American high school students. Again, her enthusiasm for the subject matter of classical Spanish writers enthralled high school students! She was involved in this program for another five years. She died in Denton, TX, at the age of 92.
She was respected and endeared by many students at various stages of their lives as she aided them in pursuing their educational goals and afterwards.
It is with great honor, respect and enthusiasm that we recognize her contributions to education with this scholarship. With the awarding of this year’s scholarship, we wish recognize whenever possible qualified ethnic minority women in her image demonstrating financial need while studying in the field of engineering.
Deadline
March 1
Requirements
To be eligible for consideration, an applicant for the Scholarship must meet the following criteria:
- Meet the minimum entrance and continuing academic performance standards of the College of Engineering in effect at the time of any award;
- Maintain full-time enrollment as established by the University, unless the student is nearing completion of their degree program and does not need full-time enrollment;
- Enroll as a full-time student in any degree-granting program in the College of Engineering at the University;
- Demonstrate leadership skills and community service activities within their community by submitting an essay of at least 500 words describing their experiences and the leadership lessons they have learned and any similarity between their activities and the career of Leonor Garcia.
Recipients
2022 Brandon Lopez, Jazmine Fuentes, Bernice Chiaha, Chalieta Audreylia
2021 Ken Beltrand, Hitesh Adhikari, Robin Cung
2020 Ozioma Ozigbo, Sasha Falaja
2019 Ridwan Hossain
2018 Ricardo Vela
2017 Andres Montoya
2016 Jose Valentino
