March 20

On this day in 2016, when the announcement regarding Hendrickson Technologies' annual college scholarship - which provided full 4-year college tuition and related expenses for a local high school senior exhibiting excellence in STEM - was made, the news caused dissent among residents of Chattanooga, Tennessee where Hendrickson was based. The winner of 2016's award was Francisca Delgado, a 16 year old high school senior, whose family had moved to Tennessee, from Puerto Rico, 2 years before. 

Delgado, who had been enrolled in gifted/talented public school programs since the first grade, and who had skipped a grade when she at 12 years of age, when it was found that she was performing at an academic level far above her peers, even within the gifted/talented spectrum, had only recently exhibited a special affinity for science. In a short time, however, it was clear to both her parents and her teachers, that this was where both her greatest talents, and her truest passion lie. 

While faculty of Leonidas Polk High School appluaded Hendrickson Technologies' choice, many Chattanooga families voiced their opposition, citing that the award had historically been granted to a local young person in the pursuit of his or her goals, not an outsider. A handful of parents banded together to form a coalition - Society for the Preservation of American Rights - and set about to have the rules of the Hendrickson Technologies annual award clearly define the parameters for qualification to include American students, ONLY.  SPAR issued a press release stating that, while they wished Delgado the best in all of her future endeavors, they were dismayed at the growing trend of men, women and even children from other countries coming to the U.S. and snatching educational and professional opportunities that rightfully belonged to Americans. 

When a reporter from the Chattanooga Times Argus called SPAR's leader, Gilroy Benton III, to ask if he was aware that, not only was there nothing to indicate that Hendrickson Technologies had ever intended for their prize to be reserved for U.S. citizens, but that Puerto Rico was, in fact, an American territory, and that all Puerto Ricans are American citizens, he was told that Mr. Benton had no comment.