This month, five Honors students stopped by FIU MMC to pick up their brand new Apple MacBook Pros and Window Surface Laptop 3s computers. These devices, courtesy of the Tony Menendez Computer Scholarship, are for the students to keep during their undergraduate studies and after.
With most Fall courses currently taking place online and many courses continuing in hybrid and remote modalities in the Spring 2021, having the right equipment is imperative for students to succeed in their studies.
Since 2008, the scholarship has been generously funded by the law firm of Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff and Sitterson, PA in memory of attorney Tony Menendez. Menendez used his computer programming and decrypting skills to win an historic class-action suit on the behalf of gas station owners against ExxonMobil, while battling cancer.
The scholarship in his name now gives high-achieving high school students with financial need access to technology they can use to continue their academic success in college.
Past recipients of the scholarship have taken advantage of the resources that having a new, high-performing personal computer can offer students. Honors student and Biology major Myles Covington for example, was awarded the Menendez Computer Scholarship as a freshman in 2017. He has recently gone on to receive local media recognition for his undergraduate research with orchids at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
This year’s recipients are incoming Honors freshmen Alyson Garcia, Gabriel Marrero, Jacquelyn Kraimer, Vivian Cabellero, and Orlando Garcia.
In addition to their laptop computers, they received a new FIU backpack and inspirational letter on the history of the scholarship.