By Jill Parker Landsman
The National Court Reporters Foundation (NCRF) presented the Carl Sauceda Grant at the NCRA Conference & Expo in Houston, Texas, last month. The first-place $1,000 award went to Kimberly Xavier, RDR, CRR, CRC, CMRS, CRI, an official court reporter from Arlington, Texas. Second-place winners for a $500 grant each went to Stacy L. Drohosky, RMR, CRR, CRI, an official federal court reporter from Hammond, Ind., and Erminia Uviedo, RDR, CRR, CRC, a court reporter and captioner from San Antonio, Texas.
Now in its second year, the NCRF Sauceda Grant was awarded to three recipients due to the candidates’ efforts in creating success for other court reporters. Career journeys need care and learning opportunities. These recipients served as court reporter champions, each in their own way. NCRF Trustees deemed each of them as deserving of a 2023 Sauceda award.
The grant’s purpose is to recognize those who have had an influence in the lives of rising court reporters. “[Receiving this grant] will be an honor for the recipient to continue to promote and support the profession,” said Sauceda when originally interviewed about the grant’s creation.
Excited about her first-place recognition both at the NCRA Conference Awards Luncheon and afterwards, Xavier said: “Receiving the NCRF Carl Sauceda Grant is especially meaningful to me because Carl is one of the most memorable court reporters I have met in my career.
“He was only the second African American court reporter I ever met, and I had been a professional reporter for almost four years by that time. To see him rise through the ranks of leadership impacted and inspired me as a young African American reporter in a way nothing else could. I consider it the highest of honors to receive anything with his name attached, and I am excited to use this grant to sow a seed to assist in launching a special upcoming 2024 project for new professional reporters through Stenovator Pathway Solutions, Inc.”
Drohosky was humbled and grateful to be a recipient and will be honored on stage at the 2024 Awards Luncheon. “I would like to start out by thanking the Foundation for awarding me the Carl Sauceda Grant,” Drohosky said. “It will allow me and StenoStrides to continue promoting verbatim reporting one event at a time to high school and middle school students, school counselors, and the public.”
“I was so surprised to receive this award,” said Uviedo. “But I am so thankful to the National Court Reporters Foundation for all their advocacy for our profession of court reporters! Although I am more than happy to promote court reporting and mentor high-speed students to help them pass their RPR tests and promote this wonderful skill of our little machines, it was such an honor for NCRF to recognize individuals who help promote the profession in their own way.”
Read more about the grant recipients.
To learn more about the NCRF Carl Sauceda Grant, click here. Questions? Email Jill Parker Landsman, NCRF Manager at jlandsman@ncra.org.
