2016 CIRCLE OF ACHIEVERS EVENT GALA (photos)
One of our top honors, the Corporate Leadership Award, sent to Maria Winans, Chief Marketing Officer for IBM Commerce, Social Business and Mobile. For the past 25 years, Maria has achieved several positions at IBM and now serves as a global executive who is an exemplary role model to young people everywhere. She was part of an exciting program which also celebrated the success of ASPIRA students pursuing a higher education, who were awarded with college scholarships and other significant community influencers (see photos).
Angy Paola Rivera — columnist for “Ask Angy,” an award winning undocumented immigrant advice column published in several print and digital outlets – was presented with the 2016 Aspirante Achievement Award. Finally, Manny Vega, a revered painter, printmaker, muralist, illustrator, costume and set designer, as well as, a mosaic fabricator received a special recognition. In the winter of 2015, Manny created a marvelous mural of Aspira founder, Dra. Antonia Pantoja, which the public can view at the Corsi Senior Center on East 116th Street, in the heart of Spanish Harlem, where Aspira began.
photos: John Caballero
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ASPIRA, which means “to aspire,” was founded by Dr. Antonia Pantoja in New York City and has grown from a local organization to the nation’s largest Latino nonprofit dedicated to educating and developing the next generation of Latino leaders. At the Circle of Latino Achievers gala, ASPIRA of New York’s will celebrate extraordinary success in providing more than 500,000 young people the tools they need to learn, grow and achieve in the last 55 years collectively throughout the states and in Puerto Rico.
