Premio Vila (Student Scholarship)

The Cuban-American Association of Civil Engineer Inc. will award annual “Jose A. Vila” Scholarship to Civil Engineer students,among the state of Florida accredited Programs. The minimum amount that each student will receive is $1,000, depending on available funding received by private donations.

The students who receive the “Jose A. Vila” Scholarship will be honored in more ways than one; it’s a monetary but also it’s the prestige of being recognized by your peers. The scholarship depends upon private donations from our members and local engineering companies. Most of all, it tells the student that he or she is among the elite in the Civil Engineering field. Just to mention some of the past recipients, they are: Mr. Joaquin Aviño P.E., former Miami-Dade County Administrator; Ms. Isabel Padron, P.E., Project Manager, Miami-Dade County; Mr. Roberto Carballo P.E., President of C3TS Engineers, Architects and Planners.

The “Jose A. Vila” Scholarship was created during the late 60’s to aid financially disadvantaged civil engineering students at the University of Miami. When FIU became accredited, our predecessors looked at FIU as another option and unanimous decision was made by the Board of Directors to include FIU in the “Jose A. Vila” Scholarship. Recently, the Association has decided to include the University of Florida.

Dr. Vila was a professor of the civil engineering curriculum at the University of Havana during the late 40’s, 50’s through the early 60’s. He taught structural, concrete, steel and pre-stress and post- tension concrete courses. Yes, pre-stress and post tension courses. During his teaching years at the University of Havana he always made time for his students, over and above his office hours. He would hold workshops and seminars to help students pass his classes. In Cuba during the early 50’s, there were two, one pre-stress and one post- tension bridges designed and constructed. As a matter of fact they are still in existence today. He was a consultant on both of these projects. In his
later years, in exile, he worked for several well-known engineering firms. His strategy with young engineers was, “Lets analyze this together” or “How do you think we can solve this situation?” He would explain step by step how one would arrive at the solution. Dr. Vila was a genius, an engineer above all engineers, a true humanitarian.

Become a Premio Vila Scholarship Sponsor

The Association of Cuban-American Civil Engineers (Colegio de Ingenierios Civiles de Cuba) will award its annual “Vila Scholarship” each fall. As usual, we will select students from the University of Miami, student from Florida International University, or from another Florida accredited engineer program to receive this honor. We have set a goal for this year of $3,000. In past years, you have been very generous with the association and we thank you very much for helping us to reach our past years objectives. This year, we again request your generous contributions in achieving our ambitious goal. Remember, the two humble students selected for this year’s Vila Scholarship will not only represent the association, they are elite among young civil engineers and distinguished persons like yourselves. Following is a schedule of sponsorship for the Vila Scholarship. Please take a few minutes of your time to review this material, select your generous contribution and send it to the association in the envelope provided. Please make the check payable to the Cuban-American Association of Civil Engineers, and in the memo portion of the check please write “Vila Scholarship.” Again, we thank you for your generosity to the Academic Scholarship Program. We encourage your presence at the Vila Scholarship dinner. You will have the opportunity to meet the candidates, winner of the scholarship and see where your donation has gone. If you have any questions regarding the “Vila Scholarship”, please do not hesitate to contact us Thank you in advance for your support.