SUPPORT THE ANGELICA CENICEROS ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN IN STEM

Angelica Ceniceros was born in Yuma, Arizona, on May 22, 1990. The only child of a single schoolteacher, she was raised in a humble home in the nearby border city of San Luis. She excelled in school and eventually became the valedictorian of San Luis High School but knew that she would have limited opportunities to attend renown colleges in her chosen field – Aerospace Engineering – without the assistance of academic scholarships. From a young age she felt that she would always have to work harder for these opportunities, as access to advanced, extra-curricular educational opportunities seemed limited to those from more affluent communities than her own. Fortunately, after years of hard work, she was able to secure multiple grants and scholarships that enabled her to attend MIT and Harvard for her bachelor’s degree.

Angelica worked tirelessly to qualify for this opportunity, but she never took for granted the fact that obtaining these scholarships also required a significant amount of luck. After returning to Arizona to receive her master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona and begin work with Raytheon Technologies, Angelica dedicated her free time to paying her good fortune forward to the community through a variety of charitable endeavors – serving as a weekend volunteer at local cat shelters, as a mentor to young women entering STEM studies, and as an educational volunteer and mentor at local elementary and high schools. Above all else, she wanted to ensure that young minds had the guidance, mentorship, and opportunities that she had never been given.

She did all of this while becoming a well-respected professional in her field, receiving a national Women in STEM Rising Star award in 2021, and exceling in her work as a Senior Systems Engineer. Tragically, her life would be cut short on December 20, 2021, after being struck and killed by an impaired driver while returning to her home in Tucson.

Her death was an immeasurable loss that impacted her colleagues, her friends, her family, and her fiancé, and the void left in her absence also profoundly affected the organizations, mentees, and communities that she loved to serve. As an effort to continue her spirit of giving and providing young minds with the opportunity to achieve their educational potential, this scholarship has been established to provide young women in the STEM fields the same ability to succeed that allowed Angelica Ceniceros to achieve her dreams, establish herself in her field, build a life that touched so many, and succeed in spite of the circumstances of her upbringing.

While it is impossible to fill the hole left in her community, or to replace the warmth of her presence, the charity of her person, or depths of her compassion, the hope of this scholarship is ultimately to accomplish something that Angelica would be extraordinarily proud of – to give fully the gift of an education that can not only change the life of a student, but the lives of those who can benefit from that student’s mastery.