A $750,000 gift from The Canseco Foundation has established The Canseco Foundation Presidential Scholarship Endowment at UT Health San Antonio. It is dedicated to supporting a mental health collaborative as well as offering scholarships for Laredo students to pursue health careers. It supports the Canseco family’s longstanding commitment to education and health care for the Laredo community—a medically underserved area.
The endowment will advance a pilot program that encourages collaboration among UT Health San Antonio, the UT Health San Antonio Regional Campus Laredo and Texas A&M International University to help address Laredo’s critical shortage of mental health professionals. It will provide Canseco Presidential Scholarships for top Laredo students enrolled in one of three schools at UT Health San Antonio: the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine, the School of Nursing or the School of Health Professions.
It builds on a legacy of support from The Canseco Foundation and its mission to serve the health needs of South Texas. Begun in 2006 under the leadership of former university president Francisco Cigarroa, M.D., the foundation focused on a critical need for greater access to oral health care by establishing The Canseco Foundation President’s Endowed Scholarship in Oral Health.
“Now, 12 years later, we are proud of the model we have in Laredo, which has brought collaborative partners together and established an important training program that serves the Laredo community,” said UT Health San Antonio President William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP. “Canseco Foundation scholarships have allowed us to recruit outstanding students from Laredo who will be future oral health care providers for South Texas. This new endowment will support additional students interested in mental health. The Canseco family is making a real difference in the future health of Laredo and the middle Rio Grande Valley.”