Dyanna Garcia ’25 and Deziree Garrick ’25, both graduates of the Rochester City School District’s East High School, joined the University’s incoming class this fall as Wegman Scholars. Garrick has been accepted into the five-year Guaranteed Rochester Accelerated Degree in Education program, in which she’ll receive a master’s degree in education from the Warner School, while Garcia plans to complete a pre-med curriculum.

Dyanna Garcia ’25

“I want to be a surgeon, and Rochester has one of the best pre-med programs around,” says Garcia, who was valedictorian of the 2021 East High school class. “This scholarship made all my dreams come true.”

Thanks to the generosity of the Wegman Family Charitable Foundation, Garrick and Garcia received four-year comprehensive scholarships that include tuition, room and board, support for indirect costs and emergency needs, and an enrichment stipend (to cover expenses related to experiences such as research, internships, and study abroad).

The Wegman Family Charitable Foundation has provided significant support to the University over the years, including to the Goergen Institute for Data Science, Golisano Children’s Hospital, and the Eastman School of Music, among many other areas and initiatives.

For Garrick, and for East High, this moment also comes amid a transformation that began when she came to East in 2015—the same year that the University began serving as an Educational Partnership Organization (EPO) with the school.

“When we started the EPO, the graduation rate at East was 29 percent and only 5 percent of our students lived in the community,” says Shaun Nelms, superintendent, East High EPO and the William & Sheila Konar Director of the Center for Urban Education Success at the University. “Now, we’re a neighborhood school with a graduation rate of 85 percent and a college-going culture. Our students and families—who were at the center of these changes—have hope for pathways beyond high school. Initiatives like the Wegman Scholarship contribute to that hope.”

Deziree Garrick ’25

While a student at East, Garrick also participated in the Medical Center’s Center for Human Athleticism and Musculoskeletal Performance and Prevention (CHAMPP) program, which offers training, nutrition consultation, and mental health skills coaching to East High athletes—one of many University/East High partnerships that now exist.

“We’re committed to expanding diversity, equity, and inclusion in our student body, and that includes increasing outreach to the best and brightest local students,” says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid, and enrollment management at the University. He and Nelms co-chair a taskforce that helps prepare, support, and advocate for students at East to apply for admission to the University. “We’ve already increased local student enrollment by 33 percent over the last two years. These incredible students will be the future leaders in our community.”

Garrick and Garcia join two other East High graduates in the first-year class, and are among seven total East High graduates currently enrolled as undergraduates at the University.

“It’s exciting to know that I’m taking this journey with others from the East High family,” said Garrick. “I’m so grateful to the Wegman Family Foundation for making this possible.”