Tim and Cyndy Legamaro believe in the importance of education, an idea they instilled early on in their own children. Now, the Legamaro Family Endowed Scholarship will continue to help strengthen that idea for generations of other students to come.
The Legamaros pledged $1 million in appreciated stock to the Del Mar College Foundation, the largest single scholarship gift directly targeting first-generation college students at the College.
Through the gift, the Foundation will be able to provide between $40,000 and $50,000 annually in scholarships, supporting an average of 10 to 15 students with their educational needs.
“Part of our goal was to help students graduate with limited debt because we know what a burden college debt can be, and investing in scholarships is our way to mitigate some of that debt and support families now and into the future by supporting their ability to obtain better jobs,” Timothy Legamaro told a crowd gathered to celebrate the milestone at the College’s Windward Campus.
Legamaro, President of Legamaro Financial Services, Inc., taught business and finance as an adjunct instructor with the College’s Business Administration Department in the 1980s.
The Legamaros sat down with Mary McQueen, Executive Director of the Del Mar Foundation, in 2021 with the idea of helping provide financial support. The result was developing a philanthropic plan to provide funding for first-generation students in financial need in the Flour Bluff area to ensure success in their respective areas of study.
“All education is valuable because it builds an individual,” McQueen said. “We believe that our biggest asset is our intellectual capacity.”
The Del Mar Foundation awards between $1.4 and $1.9 million in scholarship assistance benefitting between 1,400 and 1,700 individual students annually, according to the College.
“These scholarships are not only life-changing for students, but also for their families,” McQueen said.
The Legamaro Family Endowed Scholarship will support students pursuing a range of majors — including certificates — associate’s degrees scholarship recipients will receive funds covering tuition, fees and textbooks for as many classes as students are enrolled.
Additionally, the scholarship will follow recipients to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi or Texas A&M University-Kingsville to complete bachelor’s degrees in their chosen field. Recipients pursuing a career as a registered nurse through the College’s Nurse Education Department also can use the scholarship to continue studies in Del Mar’s RN-to-BSN program to complete a bachelor’s degree.
