It will be a scholarship banquet as well as a Cinco de Mayo party at the University of Utah Olpin Union ballroom on Tuesday, May 2, at 6 p.m. The public is invited to the 25th annual Chicano Scholarship Awards Banquet.
Eugene Garcia, dean of the graduate school of education at the University of California Berkeley, will give the keynote address. Garcia is a former faculty member at the University of Utah. He helped start the awards banquet, all those years ago, as a way to highlight the triumphs of Chicano students.The scholarship program has given economic and moral support to more than 300 Utah students. This year's recipients include 12 entering freshmen, five undergraduates and two graduate students. They are:
Henry Alvarez, a senior at Hunter High; Claudia Castillo, Judge Memorial; Derek Garduno, Judge Memorial; Justin Manchego, Judge Memorial; David Garcia, Judge Memorial; Maria Elena Salazar, West High; Maria Christina Banderas, West High; John Andy Higgins, West High; Carol Gabriela Munoz, West Jordan; Michael Vincent Orellana, Copper Hills High; and Silvia Salguera, Park City High. Sara Pando Ocon, West High, will receive the Vincent Villanueva Meyer Memorial Award.
Sarah Hunt, who is majoring in sociology at the U., will get a scholarship as will Daniel Gonzales, biology/French; Francisco Bedolla, social sciences, will get the Ernesto Gonzalez Memorial Award; Luciano Marzulli, undecided major, will get the Rey Florez Memorial Award; and John Anthony Merino, biology, will get the Helen and Nick Papanikolas Award. Graduate students Veronica Sandoval, pharmacology and toxicology, and Octavio Macias Pimental, educational studies, will also get grants.