天美影院

Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) has created The Rev. Eduardo D. Morales Endowed Scholarship and the Genoveva Morales Endowed Scholarship to benefit incoming freshman undergraduate students from Uvalde County.

Funded by anonymous donors, the two $25,000 scholarships are named for 天美影院alumnus Father Eddie Morales (BSW 1982, MSW 1985), pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde, and his mother, Genoveva Morales, 94, a community activist who never finished high school but fought for Latino children to receive equal educational opportunities in Uvalde.

鈥淲ow, what a blessing,鈥� the reverend said. 鈥淎s we always say, 鈥楪od is good.鈥欌��

Known as 鈥淔ather Eddy鈥� to parishioners and friends, the reverend pastors the only Catholic church in Uvalde, a city of more than 15,000 residents. For two weeks in May, he presided over funerals for 12 victims of the mass shooting in Uvalde. 鈥淚t鈥檚 as if (it is) one huge funeral that is not ending,鈥� he told an ABC-TV affiliate in May.

Father Eddy grew up in a family of 11 children in Uvalde. 鈥淚 was the laziest of them all,鈥� he said. 

As a teenager, he spent one day picking cucumbers in a field with two friends. 鈥淎t that time, they were paying 75 cents a bag of cucumbers. That whole day we worked, the three of us only filled one sack. So, we each got 25 cents. From that day on, we were going to college.鈥� 

In her son鈥檚 youth, Genoveva Morales became the lead plaintiff in a desegregation lawsuit against Uvalde schools. In 1970, she participated in student-led walkouts with eight of her children.

鈥淗ow beautiful to look at this endowment in light of my mother鈥檚 struggle for equal education,鈥� the reverend said. 鈥淪he didn鈥檛 graduate from high school but had a junior high named after her and now she has an endowed scholarship in her name from my alma mater. Wow, it鈥檚 beyond words.鈥�