COUNTYWIDE : 2 UCI Grad Students Win Fellowships

Two students at UC Irvine’s Graduate School of Management are the first beneficiaries of Pacific Mutual Foundation’s fellowship program for Latinos.

Oscar Saavedra and Leslie Modregon will receive $2,000 each this school year, UCI officials said. The fellowship program is being funded by a $50,000 grant from the Newport Beach-based foundation, and is expected to help a total of 13 graduate students over the next five years.

“Our goal in sponsoring this fellowship is twofold: to financially assist deserving students and to play an important role in (the Graduate School of Management’s) efforts to increase the numbers of Hispanic students in MBA and Ph.D. programs,” said Thomas C. Sutton, chairman and chief executive officer of Pacific Mutual.

Saavedra said the fellowship will allow him to “concentrate on my studies instead of ways to meet expenses for school.”

The 26-year-old San Leandro man quit his job as a facilities engineer for Citicorp Savings to attend UC Berkeley, where he got a degree in manufacturing engineering. He is specializing in operations research at UCI and hopes to run his own business.

Modregon, 25, of Buena Park, said that in addition to the money provided by the fellowship, she was pleased to play a part in the program’s minority recruitment efforts.

“A lot of minorities have to struggle to reach the graduate level because of finances and the lack of role models in their disciplines,” said Modregon, who got a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Cal State Fullerton. At UCI, she is specializing in marketing.

Next year, Saavedra and Modregon each will receive an additional $2,000, and three more graduate students entering the fellowship program will receive the same amount, a UCI spokeswoman said. The program will run through the 1995 school year.