2018-19 New Scholarship Recipients
Odalys Alvarez, Pajaro Valley High School (Carol Coe Memorial Scholarship)
Ms. Alvarez will be majoring in Business Administration with the goal of owning her own business, being successful and giving back to her parents. After a near fatal automobile accident in 2016, Ms. Alvarez has struggled (successfully) to regain mental and physical strength. She played soccer from 8th grade, except for the year of recovery after her accident. She is involved in student government, Folklorico dance group and several clubs. She has already signed up for SJSU’s Folklorico Club and plans to become involved in student government. She works half time and has maintained a high grade point average, ranking 31 out of 286 students in her class. She has one brother who is attending SJSU in Civil Engineering.
Briannna Delgado, Santa Cruz High School
Ms. Delgado plans to major in Nursing at SJSU. She has been active in school, leading the Cheer team, was Captain of the Soccer team and enrolled in AVID and an ROP Medical Technology class. She expressed being challenged by racial stereotyping which assumed she did not belong in Honors and AP classes. She has succeeded in overcoming those assumptions by maintaining a very high grade point average and becoming a strong, determined, resourceful student. She is mature and confident. She has two brothers, one of whom is a student at UC Davis.
Angie Mendoza, Cabrillo College
Ms. Mendoza impressed the Scholarship Committee by her strong sense of motivation and interest in her major: Communication Studies. As a child she had difficulty in verbally communicating and spent some time with a speech therapist. She works part time with children and hopes to one day provide communication skill-building classes for middle and high school students in her community. Her long-range goal is to earn a PhD and become a university professor.
Gabriella Sandoval, Scotts Valley High School
Ms. Sandoval is not only a very strong student (4.0 weighted GPA), but an outstanding athlete. She has been wrestling for 8 years and was Captain of the wrestling team for three years. She was a member of the U.S. Women’s National Wrestling Team and took State Champion two years ago. She plans to major in Materials Engineering because she loves to fix and build machines! One of her goals is to improve her fluency in Spanish, as she is very proud of her Mexican heritage. She was raised by a single parent and has one brother who is attending college.
Aliyahhmae Tefora, Aptos High School
Ms. Tefora is interested in a Behavioral Science major that would lead to a career in the medical field. She wants to help people in different areas of the world. She was very active in school, participating in clubs and organizations and volunteered in her community, as well. Ms. Tefora comes from a very low income family and lives in Castroville. She made the decision to attend Aptos High because she felt she would receive a better education there. She starts her day at 4:00 am in order to get to school in Aptos! Ms. Tefora has excellent grades and test scores and will have completed at least six AP courses by the time she enters SJSU.