The University Balloon Race Scholarship Committee has been in existence since 1986 and has awarded scholarship funds since the early 1990s. 

The University Balloon Race Scholarships have been distributed each year since 1999.  The committee exists to raise the money to award two scholarships a year; one to an undergraduate student and one to a graduate student.

The committee is pleased to announce Liliana Davalos as the graduate student recipient and Christian Jara as the undergraduate student recipient for the 2016-2017 academic year.

Davalos, a first-generation college student, is pursuing a master's degree in Public Health with an emphasis on socio-behavioral health.  She hopes to work with college students as they transition to becoming responsible for their own health-related decisions and to support efforts to make health care available to everyone.  She is also interested in working with disadvantaged Latino populations to increase the HPV vaccination rate and generally improve the level of awareness of health care resources for that group.

Jara, a first-generation college student, is a junior majoring in biology in the College of Science.  His goal is to become an oncologist.  His volunteer experiences as a translator at the Student Outreach Clinic have led to his appreciation of being bilingual, seeing the need among Spanish speaking patients for assistance with understanding medical terminology as they seek health care.

The University Balloon Race Scholarship Committee would like to congratulate Liliana Davalos and Christian Jara for their hard work and encourage everyone to attend the Great Reno Balloon Race at Rancho San Rafael Park on Sept. 9-11.

Don't forget to stop by and visit the University Balloon Race Scholarship Committee booth during the balloon races.