2014 Enseña Awards

Fred Diaz

Dr. Antonio Flores

While it’s recognized that education is a priority for the Latino community, the achievements of teachers often go unrecognized. To address this, NISSAN and LATINO Magazine, together with the U.S. Air Force , the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the University of Texas-San Antonio presented the 2014 ENSENA Awards.

The first annual awards ceremony took place at a luncheon in the historic Pearl Brewery in San Antonio on September 29, 2014 and was attended by community leaders, corporate executives, students and teachers. Three high school teachers  in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) were recognized from New York City, Nashville, and San Antonio.

The  keynote speaker was Fred Diaz, Senior Vice President, Nissan Sales & Marketing and Operations U.S., Nissan North America, Inc., a position to which he was appointed in January 2014. In this role, Diaz is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Nissan Division including all sales, marketing communications, model line brand management, parts and service, product planning, light commercial vehicles, customer quality, dealer network development functions and all regional offices in the U.S.

It was a homecoming for Diaz, who was born and raised in San Antonio. And in fact, he attended South San Antonio High School, where the students at the event came from. He described the importance of STEM:

“At Nissan, there are many directions you can go with a STEM degree — from engineering, designing and building world-class cars … to advertising or finance.We are always looking for gifted individuals interested in STEM related careers. And outside of the car business? Well, there are millions of ways to go … 3.2 million ways, to be exact. That’s right. There are 3.2 million STEM-related jobs begging to be filled right now. Why? Because there are not enough qualified people to fill those openings. You know what that means? It means that with a STEM education, you have the opportunity to create your own path.”

Other speakers were Dr. Antonio Flores, president of the HispanicAssociation of Colleges and Universities (HACU); Ramiro Cavazos, CEO of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and Dr. Rudy Reyna, director of the San Antonio Pre-Freshman Engineering Program, an academic enrichment program that emphasizes the development of abstract reasoning and problem solving skills at UTSA.

The first teacher to be honored was Michel Sanchez-Wall. A graduate of UT-San Antonio, she’s currently the principal of Cane Ridge High School in Nashville. Her award was accepted by Kathleen Fuchs, Program Director of YMCA Latino Achievers in Nashville.

The second was Rafael Colon, a teacher at Stuyvesant High School, in New York City. At Stuyvesant he is a teacher of Computer Engineering, Computer Networking, Computer Aided Drafting, and Robotics.  He has also been co-advisor of the FIRST Robotics Team, Team 694 “StuyPulse” for over 14 years.

The third was Sandra Alvarado, a math teacher at South San Antonio HIgh School, who was introduced by Henry Yzaguirre, the principal. Ms. Alvarado movingly described what motivates her to teach: “I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher. I really enjoy teaching algebra because many students feel they are not good at it.  I take it as a challenge and want to prove to them that they can do algebra. I enjoy finding different ways of making it easier for them to understand it.”

And as Fred Diaz concluded: “So, to the youth in the room: You are our future. I encourage you to find your passion and not let anything and especially Anyone stand in your way. I said this before, and I will say it again: You are our future leaders, the leaders our country needs. It isn’t magic. It isn’t luck. It’s education and hard work. With an education you’re ready for any challenge that comes your way. You can write your own ticket. You can go anywhere you want to go. You can pursue your dreams.”

Many thanks to NISSAN and our other partners for their support, and to all who attended the 2014 ENSENA Awards. ¡Gracias!

 

 

Rafael Colon

Dr. Rudy Reyna