Exactly what makes an individual outstanding? Pamela Montana Eclar embodies the term in a way difficult for others to match.

Named GW’s Outstanding Woman of the Year at Program Board’s Feb. 28 charity auction, Eclar was honored for her work breaking gender and racial barriers.

“I was extremely flattered because so many qualified female leaders were there, and I didn’t feel like I belonged,” Eclar recalls.

Though modest, Eclar earned the recognition for “dedication and service to the GW community.” For the past four years, Eclar has worked through the Filipino society to educate others and promote racial equality and unity. She serves as the historian of the Philippine Cultural Society and is a member of the National Society of Black Engineers.

In a way, Eclar’s success has evened a family score.

“My father’s experiences in the Navy sparked my passion for civil rights and equality,” Eclar explains. “Even though he had entered the Navy with a college degree, he served as a messman for three years. When I asked him why (he had not been promoted), he told me that it was because minorities couldn’t do anything else when he enlisted in 1968.”

Not until 1971 did affirmative action regulations extend to cover the Navy. When the rules finally changed, Eclar’s father served 20 years in the Navy supply corps.

Her family, Eclar says, has been a solid base, supporting and inspiring her.

“My parents sacrificed so much to help me growing up, leaving the Philippines to find a better life for me,” Eclar says. “My parents, like other Filipino parents, have given up much of their dignity, pride and self-worth so that my generation would not have to suffer as they did.”

Eclar was the first recipient of GW’s Outstanding Woman Award – an honor that fits with all the other firsts on her transcript. She was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but Eclar’s family eventually followed her father’s Navy assignments to Florida. Eclar was the first student in the history of her Jacksonville high school to graduate as both valedictorian and president of her senior class. The yearbook voted her Most Likely to Succeed and Most Academically Talented.

Two summers ago, Eclar chalked up another first. On an ROTC cruise assignment, she was one of the first four women assigned to the USS John Hancock.

Eclar currently co-chairs the Filipino Intercollegiate Networking Dialogue (FIND), an East Coast conference designed to open discussion and networking among Filipino undergraduates. More than 1,000 students are expected to attend FIND March 19-22 at GW.

The conference will boast more than 30 workshops and 40 prominent speakers from the Filipino community, including entertainer Joclyn Enriquez. Topics will range from concern over anti-Asian sentiment to spirituality.

The Sunday of the conference, World War II veterans will rally in front of the White House. After the war, Eclar explains, Filipino veterans were the only minorities who did not receive generally guaranteed veteran benefits. Decades later, rally organizers hope to correct the inequity by aiding Filipino veterans, Eclar says.

When not wrapped up in the requirements for her civil/environmental engineering major, Eclar is busy as the public affairs officer of Navy ROTC.

“ROTC has helped me develop leadership ability and skills unique to people in the military and (has helped me to) become more independent and vocal,” Eclar says. “The experience is humbling as well because you know how to take orders and work with diverse groups of people.”

Eclar says her gender has not caused trouble in the military.

“The Navy is ahead of society as far as sexism because charges are taken seriously and cared for immediately,” Eclar says.

Subtle differences exist in the treatment of men and women, she acknowledges, but she says these are understandable. According to Eclar, as long as “you’re good at your job, then respect comes with that.

“Competence overcomes everything,” she says.

Eclar will serve in the Navy for four years after graduation as a surface warfare officer, but says she is uncertain whether she will stay in the Navy afterward. She always has been interested in community work and civil rights, and is considering pursuing an environmental law degree. Entering law school, Eclar says, will be the climax of her career.

She does, however, consider her enlistment as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy important. Less than 30 years ago, the same Navy discriminated against her father, she says. Eclar’s officer enlistment is a past-due vindication.

“Everything I’ve done and I do is dedicated to (my parents),” she says. “It has fallen on me to carry on their legacy, to not allow their sacrifices to die in vain.”