DREAMBUILDERS News:
DreamBuilders annually celebrates individuals, whose lifetime achievements exemplify their ability to work across disciplines to achieve their dreams, making them potential role models to those in the STEAM pipeline.
They are honored by the National Hispanic Cultural Center DreamBuilders Program and invited to address the workshop attendees and to encourage their continuing commitment to STEAM. This year’s winners Eva Encinias Sandoval and Dr. Teresita E. Aguilar were honored April 17 at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.
Eva Encinias Sandoval belongs to one of the celebrated flamenco families that immigrated to the United States after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). She learned to dance within her own family, and she has turned that passion into a way of life. She was a teacher in her academy, and in 1992 she established the Instituto Nacional de Flamenco (National Flamenco Institute, based in Albuquerque), which has its own Conservatory of Flamenco Art.
Encinias introduced flamenco instruction to the University of New Mexico, and she toured all over the United States with her own company, Ritmo Flamenco from 1970 to 1989. Encinias and her family continue to teach and advocate for education, particularly at Tierra Adentro Middle and High School where flamenco classes are taught.
Dr. Aguilar is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor University and her graduate degrees M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of North Texas. Her doctorate is in Higher Education with an emphasis in college teaching.
She taught Multicultural Education for nine years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and she received the UNL Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of People of Color award in recognition of her contributions to improve the campus environment for people of color. More recently, she received the Cultural Arts award from the Hispanic Organization for Public Employees.
The National Hispanic Cultural Center is dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and advancement of Hispanic culture, arts, and humanities, and is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
