Faces & places
The athletic complex at New Mexico Highlands University has a new name, the Leveo and Patricia Sanchez Family Stadium.
The university honored Leveo and Patricia Sanchez, a Santa Fe couple, who donated $500,000 to replace Highlands’ athletic field, in a Sept. 16 naming ceremony. The couple also donated $100,000 to upgrade the university’s Stu Clark Building, which houses several athletic offices and facilities.
“Highlands is very special to me,” said Leveo Sanchez, who serves as chairman of the university’s board of regents. His first encounter with Highlands was when he was 2 and his mother, Victoria D. de Sanchez, was taking classes at the university in 1932. She later would become one of the university’s first Hispanic professors and a pioneer in teacher education throughout the Americas. The university’s School of Education building is named in her honor.
Prior to the donations for the Stu Clark and turf replacement, Leveo and Patricia Sanchez have donated approximately $1 million to Highlands for initiatives ranging from scholarship funds to helping the university’s marching band travel to Washington, D.C., to perform at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration.
In other Highlands news, it is a leading university when it comes to getting the “best bang for the buck,” according to Washington Monthly magazine. In a study published in August 2017, Washington Monthly ranked Highlands 74th in the Western U.S. for colleges that help nonwealthy students attain a marketable degree at affordable prices. Highlands earned the highest ranking of any public college or university in New Mexico.