On the afternoon of this Tuesday, March 24, the Education Area of the Cabildo de Lanzarote paid an emotional tribute to the Mercedes Medina Association, an entity founded in 2011 that has demonstrated, over the years, a firm commitment to education, talent, and equal opportunities. Through its scholarship programs, they try to ensure that no meritorious and capable student is left without the possibility of building the best future through university education.
According to its president, Juan Cruz Sepúlveda, in its 15 years of trajectory, 40 young people have graduated from 14 faculties across Spain thanks to these aids, “which are not limited to an economic income, because we monitor academic results, provide social support, and are attentive to ensuring that difficulties such as housing, for example, do not distract students from their objective”.
Cruz Saavedra confessed her happiness for the recognition of so much work and launched into the air the proposal that the City Council of Arrecife dedicate a street to the teacher in the Tinasoria neighborhood.
In this vein, the Minister of Education, Ascensión Toledo, intervened, who highlighted the relevant role of teacher Mercedes Medina Díaz, who dedicated 45 years of her life to teaching and led a good part of her students to make important decisions linked to education and training. “She, and many other teachers, whose names have been diluted in history, favored several generations of men and some women from Lanzarote and La Graciosa, to trust in higher education to dream their futures,” she said.
To the event, held as the grand finale of the XI edition of the Planéate 2026 Professional Opportunities Exhibition, attended the island director of Education, Carmen Pellón, representatives of the island's town councils and numerous people from the Lanzarote educational community who filled the capacity of the Cabildo's Plenary Hall.
The most emotional moment came with the statements of five beneficiaries who represent the excellence, capacity, and opportunities that this entity promotes. Gabriela Benavidez Rojas, a Medicine graduate from the University of Valladolid, and Joel Reyes Toledo, a Physics graduate from the University of La Laguna, participated in person; and through recorded messages, Selena Pérez Curbelo, a Medicine graduate from the University of La Laguna, and Cathaisa Umpiérrez Bustos, a fifth-year Medicine student at the same university center.
The founder and honorary president, Mercedes Maura Palarea Medina, daughter of Mercedes Medina, who thanks to maternal impulse graduated and obtained a doctorate in Mathematical Sciences and is Professor Emerita of the University of La Laguna, thanked for the tribute through a video and highlighted the work carried out by the association's management team.
Luis Miguel Cabrera Morales, manager of the TABA Control Business Group, which collaborates with the association to cover the expenses of the scholarship students, also took the floor and repeated the phrase that would be the motto of the afternoon: “May no talent be lost along the way.”
The president of the organization Juan Cruz Sepúlveda received a commemorative plaque from the hands of councilor Ascensión Toledo Hernández, on which could be read: “To the Mercedes Medina association. For sowing knowledge, inspiring dreams and dedicating its effort to the memory and educational excellence of our community”.