University to host 18th annual Jose Marti Scholarship Breakfast

Joshua Ceballos & Nicole Stone/Assistant News Directors

 

Students and fans of historic Cuban poet and activist Jose Marti are invited from throughout the community to come to the Biscayne Bay Campus for the 18th annual Jose Marti Scholarship Breakfast.

The breakfast will be held on Monday, Jan. 29 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the WUC Ballrooms at BBC, as a chance to award the recipients of the Jose Marti Scholarship as well as an opportunity to learn.

In an interview with Panther Press, Raul Moncarz, a professor of finance and economics at the University, spoke a little bit of the importance of this event.

“This year is a unique event. This event is being sponsored by students and student affairs to reach all students at FIU so they can learn about Marti and the importance he has to not only Cuba, but to the world,” said Moncarz.

Moncarz spoke about the history and life of Jose Marti to explain why Cubans often honor him.

“He went to jail when he was very young. In his teens he went into exile in Spain. All this built him up as a writer and poet. But one thing he was not, and he died for that, he was not a soldier,” said Moncarz. “He collected money, he did a lot of things in the US and around the world for Cuba to be free. He was also an ambassador for a lot of Latin American countries to the US.”

Moncarz himself has a personal respect for Marti, and believes that his legacy is tied to that of Miami and to FIU.

“I am very passionate about this topic, because it means that our students will know about him, and because FIU is so important for Cuban diaspora, so to have his name recognized, and to have a day for him [is very important],” said Moncarz.

The Jose Marti Scholarship, which will be disbursed at this breakfast, is awarded to undergraduate students attending BBC who have meet certain academic criteria and have submitted an essay that describes global citizenship and the value of universal human rights, according to fiu.academicworks.com.

Moncarz said that he hopes many students attend this event on Monday.

“All students count, and it is very important for them to know about these scholarships and to be proud that Jose Marti was a great leader of the world, not only of Cuba,” said Moncarz.

 

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Featured Image courtesy of Juliane Sunshine