Saint Joseph Academy on Tuesday announced the largest gift in the school’s 157-year history, a $1 million endowment from alumnus Fernando De Leon that will fund the De Leon Scholars Program and De Leon Excellence in Education Award.
De Leon, is a 1997 Saint Joseph Academy graduate and chief executive officer of Leon Capital Group in Dallas, an investment company he founded and that focuses on real estate, healthcare, and building companies alongside promising entrepreneurs. Since 2009, the company has overseen more than 400 investments, representing a total capitalization of more than $7 billion, according to its website.
De Leon and his wife Patricia joined SJA officials, family and friends to announce the gift at a late morning ceremony at the school. The first three De Leon Scholars were introduced after the school shared the news.
“Fernando invests in organizations for living I am inspired that he and his family have chosen to invest in the mission of Saint Joseph Academy,” school President Michael Motyl said. “This gift is an investment in generations of young men and women. The future of SJA and our DeLeon Scholars is bright. They are trailblazers.”
De Leon told a story he said he’s repeated often about tours of Matamoros he conducted as a senior for Brother Thomas Long and other school leaders.
“They had friends that came from Boston and New York and they always asked me to give their friends a tour of Matamoros,” De Leon said. “So I would take them to the plaza and the cathedral. I would take them to some of the tough neighborhoods of Matamoros, to Mi Pueblito and to the levee on the Matamoros side.
“They started asking me to do this tour repeatedly,” De Leon said, to the point he asked for payment. The school agreed to pay him one month’s tuition per tour.
“The gift of the border is really to understand the cultural movement, the cultural fluidity, day in and day out,” De Leon said. “You can study anything, anytime in school, but the ability to understand, to see day to day where cultures interact with each other in a pretty harmonious way, that’s one of the coolest things I’ve seen anywhere in the world.
“What I learned in this place was the ability to move across cultures and to understand why we react and why we do the things that we do,” he said.
Motyl said the gift will be transformative for SJA, its students, faculty and staff.
“This gift is an investment in the formation of generations of young men and women, Motyl said. “We are profoundly grateful for Fernando and his family’s commitment to supporting our students and educators. Both the De Leon Scholars Program and the De Leon Excellence in Education Award will continue to deepen our approach to relational teaching and learning, enhancing both the philosophical and educational aspects of the Marist, Catholic education that St. Joseph Academy provides.”
Andrea Jasso, one of the three juniors named De Leon Scholars, said she has high hopes for her senior year. Along with Julio Cesar Silguero, another is Cynthia Gonzales. She said she’s looking forward to networking, internship and scholarship opportunities going forward.
De Leon said he would be remiss if he failed to mention his wife Patricia. “She’s the one who kind of guided guiding me back to SJA,” he said.
“SJA supported a lot of us with tuition assistance and changed our life’s trajectory,” De Leon said. ‘The dual cultures that we learned to navigate at SJA are the perfect background for developing versatile, conscientious, and talented young men and women that can make a global impact. We’re delighted to support one of the most important institutions in Brownsville.”
