Garcia receives Algernon Sydney Sullivan and AU President's Awards

In a ceremony at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center, Caesar Garcia, a senior in mechanical engineering, received the 2005 Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award and the President's Award for engineering.

The Algernon Sydney Sullivan Awards were established by the New York Southern Society in 1925 in memory of Sullivan, a southerner who became a prominent lawyer, businessman, and philanthropist in New York in the late nineteenth century. The award is given each year to a graduating male and a graduating female student at select universities in recognition of scholarship, university involvement and community service.

Recipients must exhibit and support a spirit of love for and helpfulness to other men and women. Former recipients of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan National Award include environmentalist Kelly Mosley, historian Wayne Flynt, and astronaut T.K. Mattingly.

"The Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award is a great honor to me because of what it stands for," Garcia said of the announcement. "Because of my love for this university, representing Auburn is something of which I am extremely proud. Auburn provides a great education. But first it's a great community that has wonderful traditions and an admirable spirit. I have the fondest memories of my time here at Auburn."

The Auburn University President's Award is given each year to a graduating student in recognition of those high qualities which "ennoble and beautify living and bind man to man in mutual love and helpfulness." Qualifications include characteristics of heart, mind, and conduct that evince a spirit of love for and helpfulness to other men and women.

Garcia has received many academic, athletic and civic awards. He was recently named to USA Today's 2005 All-USA College Academic Team, and in 2003 was named the outstanding mechanical engineering student of the year.

Garcia, a championship diver and member of AU's varsity swimming and diving team, has won back-to-back NCAA titles on the platform. He is the only man to ever accomplish that feat and was named 2004 NCAA diver of the year.

An active member of the Catholic Student Organization, he also serves as executive chair of the Cupola Engineering Society, a group of student ambassadors for the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. Raised in Bogalusa, Louisiana, Garcia has a 3.91 grade-point average and expects to graduate in May 2005.