ORLANDO, Fla. — The last-minute preparations are in, and the annual Florida Puerto Rican Parade and Festival is set to kick off in downtown Orlando Saturday.
Through the years, the connection between central Florida and Puerto Rico has grown stronger. That connection was on full display with the University of Central Florida giving a helping hand to students on the island in pursuing their academic dreams.
The University of Puerto Rico at Aguadilla has a beautiful campus, where you’ll find plenty of sharks, seeing as its mascots are Sharky and Tintorera. But you’ll actually find some Knights there as well.
This is thanks to the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program, a federally funded program designed to prepare undergraduate students for doctoral studies, research and other activities.
“They’re UCF McNair program students, but at the University of Puerto Rico at Aguadilla,” said Fernando Rivera, director of the UCF Puerto Rico Research Hub
McNair was a physicist, astronaut and scholar. His legacy lives on following the Challenger space shuttle’s explosion. Now that legacy inspires new generations through education.
"They put a program together to increase the number of unserved and unrepresented populations to go into grad school," said Rivera.
The program recently spotlighted Nathalie Nieto-Torres from Aguadilla. She’s a first-degeneration STEM student and future Ph.D. candidate in molecular biology. She says McNair empowered her to pursue her dreams.
There’s also Adriana Camacho-Badillo, a junior studying biology who has a passion for research. She says UCF’s McNair program has provided unwavering support.
The two visited UCF for a conference recently. It was just one of many opportunities the program offers to give students the chance to network and gain new mentors.
"The scholars are doing fantastic, getting a lot of summer programs, placement into grad programs," Rivera said.
The director of UCF’s McNair program recently visited La Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico and UPR to share insights on graduate school and summer research with current and future scholars on the island.
'A very neat collaboration and sort of tells you sort of the capacity that the students from Aguadilla do actually have, and sort of the collaborations and that tie between Puerto Rico and Florida," Rivera said.
Those students are from Aguadilla, which is the city being featured in this year’s Orlando parade.
WFTV is the official broadcast partner for the Florida Puerto Rican Parade and Festival. It will be streamed live on air and online at wftv.com starting at 11 a.m. Saturday.
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