JEAN-CLAUDE GARCIA-ZAMOR <=
o:p>
FIU professor funds min=
ority
scholarship endowment =
Last December, FIU
Professor of Public Administration Jean-Claude Garcia-Zamor made a
gift to the University that, together with matching funds from the
state of Florida, totals $300,000 for the establishment of the
Jean-Claude Garcia-Zamor Scholarship Fund for Haitian-Americans. =
For
Garcia-Zamor, creating the endowment fulfilled a wish to give bac=
k to
the community that helped nurture his development.
"I was born in Haiti and didn't leave until I was 20 years
old," said Garcia-Zamor, who earned a bachelor's in political
science and master's of public administration from the University=
of
Puerto Rico, and a master's in Latin American history and doctora=
te
in public administration from New York University. "I though=
t a
good way to reach people within the Haitian-American community and
leave a legacy to the community and to Haiti was to
establish this endowment."
When Garcia-Zamor arrived at FIU in January of 1990, he was struc=
k by
the paucity of Haitian students in his classes, which he said ste=
ms
largely from a lack of financial resources. "For several
reasons, Haitian-Americans tend to be not as aware of scholarship
opportunities as other minorities," explained Garcia-Zamor. =
Any
student of Haitian ancestry who demonstrates financial need can a=
pply
for one of the newly created scholarships.
Garcia-Zamor taught at the University of Texas at Austin, Howard
University and had a two-year visiting professorship at the Brazi=
lian
School of Public Administration in Rio de Janeiro prior to arrivi=
ng
at FIU. In addition, he was the elected controller of the board of
directors of the Inter-American Development Bank in the late '70s.
Garcia-Zamor also worked as a senior specialist in public
administration at the Organization of American States and consult=
ed
for the World Bank, United Nations and U.S. Agency for Internatio=
nal
Development. He has also authored, edited or co-edited eight book=
s.
Recognizing "this is something that the Haitian-American
community needs very badly," Garcia-Zamor said he will conti=
nue
to raise monies for the scholarship fund.