Erica McFarland
UTSA McNair Scholar , Erica McFarland is deeply devoted to improving the health and holistic wellbeing of others. Her interest in wellness sparked during high school where she job-shadowed nurses at a local hospital and gained experience in clinical teaching during her senior year. Today, she studies public health with a concentration in health promotion and behavioral science in the College for Health, Community and Policy.
About Erica McFarland
Zachary Nepote
Hewitt Family Scholarship and Sue Jockusch Endowed Scholarship recipient, Zachary Nepote, has been interested in learning since childhood. His grandmother immigrated to the United States from Mexico in the 1950's and she always placed a strong emphasis education. With an appreciation for his own heritage, he developed an interest in other cultures and is now pursuing his degree in Global Affairs from the College of Liberal and Fine Arts.
About Zachary Nepote
Kendall Kloza
UTSA kinesiology major, Kendall Kloza, was born and raised in San Antonio by an incredibly athletic family. Her mother retired from a 30-year career teaching dance and her father serves as the head football coach at Robert E. Lee High School. From gymnastics and dance, to volleyball and basketball, Kloza has been involved in sports from the moment she took her first steps. Today, she is one of the top soccer players at UTSA and a competitive Valero Alamo Bowl Community Partners Scholarship recipient.
About Kendall Kloza
Alanah Penn
Biomedical Engineering student, Alanah Penn has dreamt of improving the quality of life for others through medicine since she was in elementary school. She realized that she could actually build the equipment surgeons use and indirectly reach even more people. Thanks to the Margie and Bill Klesse Endowed Scholarship in Chemical Engineering she is already making huge strides.
About Alanah Penn
Frank Harris
Graduate student and Roadrunners football quarterback, Frank Harris, has been playing football since the age of five. As a young child, Harris had dreams of becoming a professional bull rider, but luckily for UTSA, he decided to focus his talents on sports, dedicating the majority of his school years to becoming an excellent football player. His achievements and drive led him to receive a UTSA Athletics Scholarship , confirming his choice to attend the university.
About Frank Harris
Abigail Rhodes
Abigail Rhodes was not your typical undergraduate college student. Mother of four and grandmother of two, she enrolled in UTSA to follow her ambitions of becoming an elementary school teacher after nearly 25 years of working in the field of finance. In 2019, she completed her bachelor's degree and is now pursuing her graduate degree in special education. She was awarded the Samjatha Govindaraju Endowed Graduate Scholarship .
About Abigail Rhodes
Dr. Jenny Hsieh
Professor Jenny Hsieh, Ph.D. Semmes Foundation Distinguished Chair in Cell Biology , chair of the Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology department, and director of the UTSA Brain Health Consortium, has dedicated her life's work to understanding, at the cellular level, the genetic and epigenetic causes of neurodegenerative diseases so that we may develop targeted therapeutics for treating and curing these conditions.
About Jenny Hsieh
Madeline Morales
Junior environmental science student, Madeline Morales, is already affecting positive change in the communities of San Antonio and across the world. With an enthusiasm for advocacy work and scholastic dedication, she became a UTSA Top Scholar. She was also among the first class of students to be awarded the United Nations affiliated Millennium Fellowship , a leadership development program that has allowed her to take her social impact ideas to the next level.
About Madeline Morales
Chris Combs
Aerodynamics professor, Chris Combs, Ph.D. always wanted to pursue a career involving rockets and space exploration. Now the holder of the Dee Howard Memorial Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Mechanical Engineering, Combs is living his childhood dream. He is currently leading the Combs research group in his own Hypersonics Lab in the Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design.
About Chris Combs
Hafsa Ali
At the young age of six, Hafsa Ali '18 and her family packed their bags and moved from Pakistan to Queens, New York in pursuit of the American dream. Her father supported their family as a cab driver. While Ali was in high school, they moved to San Antonio. With her family's closest relatives living halfway across the world, Ali decided to stay close to home for college and chose UTSA. She is now pursuing her MBA with support from an Alumni Association Scholarship .
About Hafsa Ali
Rhonda BeLue
UTSA welcomed Rhonda BeLue, Ph.D. as the Lutcher Brown Endowed Distinguished Professor in the Department of Public Health and first associate dean for community engagement and partnerships in the College for Health, Community and Policy. As a professional committed to equity and inclusion, BeLue was thrilled to join UTSA's newest college to develop relationships within the San Antonio community, to which the university belongs.
About Rhonda BeLue
Rashad Wisdom
Roadrunners football player, Rashad Wisdom, has loved football since he began playing at the age of six. As a high school student, he was offered 13 college scholarships for his athletic excellence from several of the nation's top schools, including Columbia University, Yale University, Cornell University, Boston College, and Tulane University. Ultimately, he proudly accepted a full-ride UTSA Athletics Scholarship provided by the Roadrunner Athletics Fund.
About Rashad Wisdom