Last week, our campus faculty and staff received a communication from the Chancellor's office with updates on the status of the campus budget and recommendations from the Budget Advisory Committee (BAC). Part of the BAC's recommendations included a suggested recommendation on the elimination of our Athletics program. In keeping with our push to #KEEPUCRATHLETICS, we are sharing even more stories about our student-athletes and individuals connected to UCR and how their lives have been positively impacted by UCR Athletics.

RIVERSIDE, Calif — The UC Riverside Athletics Department is pleased to announce Women's Soccer student-athlete, Alyssa Carranza, is the 2019-20 recipient of the Hueston M. and Margaret W. Harper Scholarship Award.
 
Carranza, a rising sophomore defender on UCR Women's Soccer team who was also named to the Dean's Honors List, is a Biology major with a GPA far north of the required 3.20 needed for consideration for this award. Upon completing her undergraduate degree at UCR, Carranza plans to attend dental school followed by orthodontic school. 
 
Traditionally, the Harper Award is presented in-person during the annual student-athlete focused Scotty Awards. The Harper's son, Dr. Larry Harper, attends the event and spends time during the dinner portion of the event with the scholarship recipient. In lieu of an in-person meeting this year due to the Scotty Awards not being able to be held in person, Dr. Harper and his brother, Steve Harper, were able to spend time with Carranza via Zoom.
 
Dr. Harper spoke with Carranza about what the award means to him and its importance to his family. "Our parents were great exemplars of the classic ideal of 'a healthy mind and a healthy body'," he said. 'Our grandfather only had a sixth-grade education. My father got his bachelor's degree at USC. He was a student-athlete there and went on to earn his master's degree in Physical Education." He continued, "At the celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary, my parents said that the thing they were most proud of was that all four of their children got college degrees – two on athletic scholarships and two on academic scholarships. We established the Harper Award scholarship to honor my parents and pass their values on to generations of student-athletes." 
 
The Harpers funded the scholarship in their parent's names in 2006 to provide annual scholarship support for a UCR scholar-athlete who has demonstrated outstanding academic and athletic achievement. Dr Harper said, "I had talked about a scholar-athlete award to honor our parents and their values, but it wasn't until our dad died in 2005, and our mother had passed in 2001, that the support I got from Steve and then UCR Athletics Director Stan Morrison came together to make the Harper Award happen. That's why we are here, to pass on our parent's values to the student-athletes of UC Riverside." His brother, Steve, added "They saw the two going hand in hand – athletics and academics."
 
Steve continued, "I enjoy the idea of Alyssa, a female, being the recipient of the award. My mother would appreciate that, she would really just jump for joy. She was both an English teacher and a girls PE (physical education) teacher." He added, "She always shook her head at the lack of understanding that girls benefitted from the discipline that comes from being involved in sports. The idea that women are a lot more competitive in sports right now would be very pleasing to her."
 
Dr. Harper said, "She would have loved to have been in action after Title IX. At the time she was an undergraduate student, sports for women was very restricted. Well into her seventies, she was still playing church league volleyball. Both of our parents were wonderful role models in that respect."
 
Both Dr. Harper and Steve were student-athletes and both spoke of the impact athletics has had on their careers. "I think of my athletic experiences playing basketball and football, particularly team sports, as great preparation for the hard-nosed competition in mathematics research and faculty politics," Dr. Harper said. "Last week I turned 82 – and I am still active in mathematical research, and I am still running laps. I see it as my PE that I have to do every day. I believe there is a real synergistic relationship between physical and mental activities." To that end, UC Riverside's student-athletes often boast a GPA higher than their non-athlete counterparts.
 
"School always comes first, and it always will," Carranza said when commenting on her experience balancing Division 1 athletics and rigorous academics. "We care about winning on the field, but we also compete with our GPAs – we try and beat the previous year's team GPA and we try and beat the other athletics teams at UCR. The older girls push us to stay on top of our schoolwork. It is a great environment to be studying and competing in."
 
On being named the 2019-20 Harper Award Recipient, Carranza beamed and stated, "I am so thankful. I wish we could have met in person. It means so much to me and my family. My dad was an immigrant from Mexico who overcame a lot of hardships to get to where we are today. It means so much to my family to be recognized in this way. I can't wait to follow who will receive this award in the future and I couldn't be more grateful to be a representative of the Harper Award."