November 26, 2014
Student is second from St. Mary’s to win the $10,000 award
Leanne Fuentes, junior Finance and Risk Management and Marketing double major, became the second St. Mary’s University student to win the annual Ed Whitacre Scholarship – a $10,000 prize awarded to one junior at a local-area university who demonstrates exceptional leadership on campus or in the community.
Fuentes will receive $5,000 at this year’s San Antonio Chamber of Commerce Annual Gala on Dec. 4 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. She will receive the other $5,000 at the beginning of her senior year.
“Words cannot describe the joy and gratitude I felt when I found out I was the winner,” Fuentes said. “I am humbled and, most of all, appreciative of so many people.”
Along with managing a 3.83 GPA, Fuentes is Chief Financial Officer of Rattler Enterprises, a student-run university business; Vice President of Finance for the St. Mary’s University Chapter of the American Marketing Association; a President’s Ambassador; a mentor for the Bill Greehey School of Business; and member of the Marianist Leadership Program and St. Mary’s University Accounting Club.
She also retains membership in Gamma Iota Sigma Fraternity, Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society, Beta Gamma Sigma International Honor Society and the National Society of Leadership and Success.
Fuentes currently performs community service for the San Antonio Humane Society and has given time to the San Antonio Zoo and the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at St. Mary’s University in the past.
Her future plans include graduate school and a career at a major corporation where she can apply the skills she’s learned at the Bill Greehey School of Business, she said.
Tanairi Ochoa was the other St. Mary’s student and inaugural winner of the Ed Whitacre Scholarship in 2011. The scholarship is named after the former Chairman and CEO of General Motors and AT&T who lives in San Antonio.