Meet a Roadrunner: UTSA alumna honors her mother’s memory with new scholarship
(Aug. 12, 2015) -- Meet Rebecca Salinas ’00, ’11. This alumna was born to be a teacher and raised to give back to her community. Now, she and her family are honoring her mother’s memory and her love of education with a new scholarship.
“Growing up, I was constantly imitating my teachers,” said Salinas, who’s taught in public and private schools for nine years. “There was never any other profession that I wanted to pursue. I have a real passion for helping others.”
The importance of this, she said, was a lesson she learned at a young age from her late mother, Angie Martinez.
In 2008, the same year Salinas’ mother was diagnosed with cancer, Salinas returned to UTSA to earn her master’s degree in education. Her mother died two years after her diagnosis. During that time, Martinez never stopped helping the community or encouraging her family to do the same.
“When my mom was first diagnosed with cancer, she made it a point to make sure that we kept helping people and giving back,” Salinas said.
This spring, Salinas established the Angie Martinez Memorial Scholarship at UTSA in her mother’s memory. The scholarship provides $2,000 to undergraduate students pursuing a degree in interdisciplinary studies and certification in early childhood education. Twenty-one students applied to the scholarship this spring; five students were selected for the scholarship.
"With the scholarship, I hope to give the recipients the same opportunities I had as a student,” Salinas said. “I worked full-time while I was in school, so I am hoping the scholarship will take off some of that monetary pressure and help out with any financial need.”
Salinas and her husband, Martin Salinas ’94, also have a scholarship in the College of Business in honor of her husband’s grandparents, the Jesus Rodriguez and Lorenzo Salinas Endowed Fellowship.
“Education is just something we strongly believe in and we are big UTSA people,” Salinas said. “I am hoping to see our new scholarship grow a little bit more each year.”
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