Scholarship recipients connect with donors, share experiences

April 18, 2022 | UHCL Staff

University of Houston-Clear Lake scholarship donors met the students who are the recipients of those scholarships at an event last week, sharing life stories and future plans. About 10 students from across all disciplines, and over 50 alumni-scholarship donors attended.

Liz Lawler, whose husband Dennis was a double-UH-Clear Lake alumnus, said her husband believed math was the basis of absolutely everything and had been in the midst of his second master's degree in mathematical science when he passed away in April 2020.

"I thought the best way to honor his memory was to establish the Dennis G. Lawler Math Scholarship, for a student who is as devoted to the study of math as Dennis was," she said.

This year's Lawler Math scholarship recipients are Rocio Ortiz and Samuel Trejo Arriaga, both undergraduate math students.

"It's provided me with an opportunity to work at school instead of have to full time work somewhere else, and I became a peer mentor," Arriaga said. "I plan to move up to research assistant next semester. The scholarship has helped me tremendously in pursuing my career goal, which is to get my master's degree in statistics."

Ortiz said the scholarship benefited her by easing her family's financial burden, because she stopped working to go to school. "This has helped me with child care," she said. "I appreciate the support and the donor's belief in me. The scholarship made it possible for me to focus on my studies more."

Other scholarships are available across all disciplines. For more information, about scholarship opportunities, go online.