Observer - Story

The Winter 1999 issue of The Observer featured nine students from the Class of 2003, one from each of the University's nine schools and colleges. To tell the ongoing story of their lives, The Observer will periodically visit each of them during the four years at the University.

For this issue, The Observer caught up with Eulalia Garcia. Eulalia's story is especially appropriate for this issue since she is one of the students who benefits from the scholarship support provided by The Associates.

Now in her sophomore year at Hillyer College, Eulalia has flourished at the University, both academically and in terms of her experiences outside the classroom.

During her freshman year, Eulalia made a conscious decision not to take on a lot of extracurricular activities so that she could focus on her academic work and adjust to college life. Her strategy paid off. She earned a grade point average of 3.8 during her first semester and 3.6 during the second semester of her freshman year.

Now that she is feeling comfortable with college life, Eulalia is branching out in many new directions. For example, as a Hartford Scholar, she has gotten involved with The Associates, which partially funds the Hartford Scholars program. The program enables students like Eulalia, who graduate from Hartford public schools and meet the University's admission criteria, to attend UofH for half-tuition.

Last spring, Eulalia was the student speaker at The Associates' annual gala, telling guests about her experiences as a Hartford Scholar and explaining how the program has benefited her. "I got a standing ovation, and they said that had never happened before. I was so happy," she said. This fall, she participated in a career workshop sponsored by The Associates.

But The Associates is just one of the organizations with which Eulalia has become involved. During the summer she worked as a Red Cap, providing information and support for incoming freshmen at Orientation. She is active in Naciones Hispanas Unidas, the campus organization for Hispanic students. Eulalia is involved with a sorority and has a work-study job in the Office of Admission. In addition, she works one night a week calling prospective students to answer questions, provide information, and tell them about life as a University of Hartford student.

Eulalia will earn an associate's degree from Hillyer College in May, after which she plans to transfer into the College of Arts and Sciences as a criminal justice major. This spring, she hopes to work as a legislative intern at the Connecticut State Capitol. Eulalia's ultimate goal is to become an FBI agent, but she is also thinking about attending law school. She gained invaluable experience working at a Hartford law firm last summer - a job she got by going through the Yellow Pages, calling local law firms, and being persistent.

Eulalia became interested in criminal justice taking a law course during her junior year at Hartford Public High School. Someday, she would love to be involved in law enforcement right here in her home city. "The city I grew up in has a bad reputation, and I'd like to change that," she said.

Eulalia will be the first person in her family to graduate from college. She is working to be a positive role model for her two younger sisters, ages 5 and 9. Eulalia lived on campus during her freshman year, but this year she is living at home with her mother and sisters, both to save money and because she misses them. She knows that her sisters look up to her and that her college experience will encourage them to place a high value on education.

Eulalia's goal for the next two and a half years is simply to get the most she can out of her time at the University of Hartford. "I'm going to try a little bit of everything," she said. "So far, it's been a great experience." -BS