Gift from Alumnus Provides Scholarships to Students from Puerto Rico
New Haven, Conn.—Two Yale graduate students from Puerto Rico have received the Victor Luis Gonzalez Scholarship to study forest management and environmental education at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
The scholarship recipients are Jorge Figueroa, a native of Cupey, Puerto Rico, who is studying forest management and land-use law as part of a joint degree program with Pace University School of Law, and Adrian Cerezo, of Guaynabo, who is studying for a master’s degree in conservation policy and environmental education.
The scholarships were made possible by a generous five-year gift to the school from Victor Gonzalez, a businessman from San Juan who graduated from the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies with a master’s degree in forest science in 1977. The scholarship benefits one to three students a year from Puerto Rico who have an interest in either forestry or industrial environmental management. Gonzalez is managing partner of Puerto Rico Land & Fruit, which produces and sells organically grown coffee and manages ecological restoration projects.
Figueroa was co-president of the Latin American Law Student Association at Pace from 2005 to 2006. In his second year at Pace, he was a delegate intern with the Papua New Guinea Mission to the United Nations as part of a diplomacy practicum sponsored by Pace and the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
A bona-fide member of Tripulación Central and founding member of the TerraPoetas poetry collective, Figueroa performed at Pablo Neruda’s Presidential Medal of Honor award ceremony in 2004. The award was given to Ricardo Alegria, founder of Puerto Rico’s Institute of Culture, by Chile’s then-President Ricardo Lagos.
Figueroa holds bachelor’s degrees in comparative literature and Spanish & Latin American literature from the University of Rochester and finished the required course work for a master’s of science degree in natural resources management from the Universidad Metropolitana in Puerto Rico.
“I have wanted to be an environmental lawyer since high school,” said Figueroa. “It’s plain common sense—if our existence as a species is sustained by water and oxygen, we need to preserve them through a sound and efficient legal system and education. I’m very grateful to the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies for all the support and opportunities it has provided me to pursue my goals.”
As an instructor, teacher, trainer, program evaluator, curriculum designer and participant in international forums, Adrian Cerezo has explored a diversity of perspectives and practices concerning education in pursuit of an answer to the question: “How can we learn to live sustainably?”
Cerezo is studying the educational systems of communities that have been able to protect the environment. Last summer, he completed a research project in Spain that investigated the environmental practices of the Basque people who have preserved their land for more than 10,000 years while simultaneously embracing industrialization and economic progress.
From 1997 to 2000, Cerezo was a senior education programs fellow at the National Zoo Park of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where he studied the connection between museum education programs and school curricula and developed communications strategies, educational materials and museum exhibitions for research projects conducted at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
Cerezo holds a bachelor’s degree in clinical psychology from the University of the Sacred Heart in San Juan. After he graduates from the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies in 2007, he plans to improve environmental education systems and policies in the United States, paying particular attention to Puerto Rico.
“More often than not, we will practice what experience has taught us rather than what we have been taught,” said Cerezo. “If environmental education is to have a significant effect on behavior and sustainability, it has to be able to connect what we think with what we do.”
For more information about the Gonzalez Scholarship, contact Eugenie Gentry, director of development, at 203-436-4844.
The scholarship recipients are Jorge Figueroa, a native of Cupey, Puerto Rico, who is studying forest management and land-use law as part of a joint degree program with Pace University School of Law, and Adrian Cerezo, of Guaynabo, who is studying for a master’s degree in conservation policy and environmental education.
The scholarships were made possible by a generous five-year gift to the school from Victor Gonzalez, a businessman from San Juan who graduated from the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies with a master’s degree in forest science in 1977. The scholarship benefits one to three students a year from Puerto Rico who have an interest in either forestry or industrial environmental management. Gonzalez is managing partner of Puerto Rico Land & Fruit, which produces and sells organically grown coffee and manages ecological restoration projects.
Figueroa was co-president of the Latin American Law Student Association at Pace from 2005 to 2006. In his second year at Pace, he was a delegate intern with the Papua New Guinea Mission to the United Nations as part of a diplomacy practicum sponsored by Pace and the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
A bona-fide member of Tripulación Central and founding member of the TerraPoetas poetry collective, Figueroa performed at Pablo Neruda’s Presidential Medal of Honor award ceremony in 2004. The award was given to Ricardo Alegria, founder of Puerto Rico’s Institute of Culture, by Chile’s then-President Ricardo Lagos.
Figueroa holds bachelor’s degrees in comparative literature and Spanish & Latin American literature from the University of Rochester and finished the required course work for a master’s of science degree in natural resources management from the Universidad Metropolitana in Puerto Rico.
“I have wanted to be an environmental lawyer since high school,” said Figueroa. “It’s plain common sense—if our existence as a species is sustained by water and oxygen, we need to preserve them through a sound and efficient legal system and education. I’m very grateful to the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies for all the support and opportunities it has provided me to pursue my goals.”
As an instructor, teacher, trainer, program evaluator, curriculum designer and participant in international forums, Adrian Cerezo has explored a diversity of perspectives and practices concerning education in pursuit of an answer to the question: “How can we learn to live sustainably?”
Cerezo is studying the educational systems of communities that have been able to protect the environment. Last summer, he completed a research project in Spain that investigated the environmental practices of the Basque people who have preserved their land for more than 10,000 years while simultaneously embracing industrialization and economic progress.
From 1997 to 2000, Cerezo was a senior education programs fellow at the National Zoo Park of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where he studied the connection between museum education programs and school curricula and developed communications strategies, educational materials and museum exhibitions for research projects conducted at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
Cerezo holds a bachelor’s degree in clinical psychology from the University of the Sacred Heart in San Juan. After he graduates from the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies in 2007, he plans to improve environmental education systems and policies in the United States, paying particular attention to Puerto Rico.
“More often than not, we will practice what experience has taught us rather than what we have been taught,” said Cerezo. “If environmental education is to have a significant effect on behavior and sustainability, it has to be able to connect what we think with what we do.”
For more information about the Gonzalez Scholarship, contact Eugenie Gentry, director of development, at 203-436-4844.
