About The MGM National Harbor Endowed Veterans Scholarship
The MGM National Harbor Endowed Veterans Scholarship was established in 2016 to provide scholarship support for veteran students at the University of Maryland.
This endowed scholarship fund reflects MGM National Harbor’s commitment to those who have served our country. It is also an example of parent company MGM Resorts International’s commitment to corporate social responsibility and to building stronger host communities.
About The Fund
Please contact sagiving@umd.edu for more information about the MGM National Harbor Endowed Veterans Scholarship
Meet Our Scholars
Andre MaGowan is a 4 year veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He moved to the US from The Netherlands when he was very young. From his childhood there was nothing he aspired to more than to become a Marine. During his time in service, Andre had the privilege to meet people from across the nation and world. When he returned to Maryland in 2020, he assisted in staffing the vaccination clinics with the Maryland Army National Guard. Some of his greatest interests have always been history and languages. Andre’s goal is to become a linguist and hopefully work as a Foreign Service Officer.
Andre MaGowan (2023-2025 Scholar)
Past Scholars
Kenth Santibanez Rivera (2019-2021 Scholar)
Kenth was born in the small country of El Salvador. His family moved to Texas when he was 13 years old. Immediately after high school, he joined the U.S. Navy and served for 4 years as an Aviation Structural Mechanic working on the maintenance of BlackHawk helicopters. Currently a junior majoring in Aerospace Engineering and working part-time under the Pathways Employment Internship program at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center where (fingers crossed), he hopes to work as an engineer there after graduation. At NASA he has worked for the ExoCube2 and PetitSat Missions assisting in the building and testing of mass spectrometers to be used as space science instruments. Kenth is a husband and father of two children, and his family is the reason and motivation to become an engineer who they can all be proud of.
David Pichardo (2018-2019 Scholar)
David Pichardo is the first in his family to serve his country. A proud US Marine Corp veteran who served for 5 years during 2003-2008 with two deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, David is a junior in the iSchool majoring in Information Science. My interests include computer and technology, more specifically programming. My goal is to become a Data Scientist because I love the human-computer aspect and solving organizational and societal problems using information and technology. He has two children (1-month-old son and 2-year-old daughter).
Michael Gessner (2016-2017 Scholar)
Michael Gessner is a 10 year veteran of the US Air Force having served a deployment to Iraq and one to Haiti where he led a 12 person intelligence team to assist in recovery operations the day after the earthquake. Working with USAID distributing humanitarian aid opened his eyes to what public service can be. He is currently working on his Masterâs degree in Architecture having completed at Bachelorâs degree in Global Security and Intelligence Studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where he was part of the Air Force ROTC. His wife is active duty Air Force and they are parents of two children.
How to Apply
For more information, please contact us at 301-314-4900 or sagiving@umd.edu.