DAVIS, Calif. --
Tiger Garcia, a 2020 UC Davis graduate in managerial economics and a former team captain for the football team, earned a grant from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program to attend the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. He is the third Aggie student-athlete in as many years to earn such honors, following soccer player Wallis Lapsley and field hockey player Beth Lee. Distance runner Kenneth Smallwood also captured the award back in 1987.
Garcia will attend Strathclyde Business School, one of just three institutions around the globe to have earned the "Triple Crown" accreditation from the three largest organizations in the U.S., United Kingdom and European Union. He will begin his studies toward a master's in financial technology – known as FinTech for short – this September. After all, Garcia has aspirations in the field of robo-advising, which uses artificial intelligence to help people manage their investments.
"I'm very excited to study financial technology over there," said Garcia. "I'll take classes in portfolio management, which is what I'm doing now, and get some background in programming, algorithms and big data. These are all things that are specific to financial technology now that finance is evolving so much down this automation route. I figure I should equip myself to go where the industry is going."
Garcia currently works as a portfolio manager for Penserra, an Orinda-based financial firm that manages more than $7 billion.
A two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American and one of five 2019 Aggie seniors to make the National Football Foundation's Hampshire Honor Society, Garcia rose from walk-on status to serving as a team co-captain and starting safety for the UC Davis football team. He ranked among the team's tackles leaders in his final season, and captured the program's Mike Shaw Award as the outstanding scholar-athlete of the year. Garcia worked internships at Franklin Templeton and Stryker while completing his undergraduate degree and football careers, then worked as a finance associate for Apple prior to his arrival at Penserra last fall.
The 2019 graduate in managerial economics notes that he has never lived more than an hour away from his hometown of Moraga, what with his time at UC Davis and his work at Stryker, Franklin, Apple and Penserra. Now Garcia and his wife, former UC Davis and Sacramento State thrower Lauren Kinloch, will relocate 5,000 miles east to Scotland in August. Lauren looks to work as a teacher while Tiger completes his FinTech degree.
"I'm so excited. I think it's an incredible opportunity for me to represent the UC Davis athletics department, the football team, my hometown of Moraga, and the Navajo nation in Arizona and New Mexico," said Garcia. "It will be so much fun for my wife and me to experience something new, and for me, to enhance my expertise and skills."
"Experiencing Scottish and UK culture in general will make me a better, more well-rounded individual. Learning to interact with people who are different than me is something that anyone would want, but especially in business. So much of the finance industry is connected to the UK. Interacting with people there and building friendships will help me a lot."
Garcia also credits Scott Palmer, UC Davis' prestigious scholarship advisor and an alumnus of the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program himself, and hopes that this honor will continue the trend of Aggie student-athletes winning prestigious scholarships, including such honors as the Rhodes and Marshall honors.
"Scott really has been my right-hand man with all of this. I'm so thankful that he recommended it to me. He and I worked together for so long – I've spent hundreds of hours working on this, getting letters from different professors, doing 5 a.m. Zoom meetings with professors in the UK."
For that matter, Garcia's award continues a trend of his fellow Aggie classmates going on to successful careers in finance. Tight end and fellow Academic All-American
Wes Preece is earning his CPA license while working for the Sacramento firm Douglas & Pino. Kicker
Max O'Rourke earned a master of professional accountancy during his final playing season, and landed a job with PwC.
Brandyn Lee, a member of the Aggie defensive back alongside Garcia and a sales rep for Franklin Templeton, was accepted to the UC Davis Graduate School of Management's MBA program earlier in April.
"It's all falling into place now, and Scott has been on the journey with me the whole time," said Garcia. "He has invested in me and guided me through the whole thing. He has made such a difference in my life, and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity he has given me and my wife."
ABOUT UC DAVIS:
Centrally located between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, over 700 student-athletes across 25 teams enjoy an unrivaled undergraduate experience at the fifth-ranked public school in the country.
Ranked annually in the nation's top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis and its innovative Aggie EVO system helps student-athletes develop passions, connect with a comprehensive network of alums and industry leaders, gain real-world experience and thrive as a young professional following a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school.
