Celebrating 2023 Scholarship Awardees

When COVID hit in spring of 2020, this year’s class of graduating seniors were in their first year of high school. In their last year of high school, our county was hit with back-to-back atmospheric rivers, a bomb cyclone, and devasting floods. In between, these students navigated distance or hybrid learning and the difficult emotional and economic fallout from the pandemic. And yet this year’s awardees still excelled in class, volunteered in the community, played sports when they could, participated in clubs and extracurricular activities, and worked nights and weekends to help their families make ends meet.

“This year’s scholarship awardees are a reflection of who we are as a county,” says Susan True, CEO of the Community Foundation. “They are resilient in the face of disasters and personal hardship, they are enterprising problem solvers, they found joy in creative pursuits like dance and music and they competed towards team goals. They acted to protect our natural world, lift up others, and make their community more welcoming for all. It’s an extraordinary group of young people and we can’t wait to watch them succeed toward high-quality degrees, in-demand careers, and as contributors to a thriving community.”

Generations of Donors Paying it Forward

These awards are made possible thanks to the rich history of local families contributing to young scholars’ success by establishing scholarship funds at the Community Foundation. Donors have been inspired to give back to a school they loved, to support equitable access to opportunity, or to honor loved ones’ dedication to higher education. For some, including the late Laura Segura—a cherished community leader who passed away in June of 2022—starting a scholarship fund was a way to create a legacy of her love for this community’s youth. The Laura Segura Scholarship benefits youth involved in the juvenile justice or foster care systems and the first three students awarded just received $4,000 toward their costs to attend Cabrillo College, San Francisco State University, and UC San Diego, respectively.

Education Dreams of Students & Their Families

Scholarships ranged from $1,000 to $20,000 and totaled $258,600. Over the course of our four decades, the Foundation has awarded nearly $2 million in scholarships to over 400 students. One-third of the awardees come from families with no financial ability to contribute to their student’s education. Two-thirds of the awardees are first generation college students, turning their parents’ and grandparents’ dreams of higher education into a reality. Among them are future teachers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, engineers, computer scientists, political leaders, agricultural entrepreneurs, and biomedical researchers.

This year the Community Foundation found a new way to support not just the awardees, but all 157 applicants, by offering access to a financial aid expert to help them understand the costs they faced, and the options they had. Emi Tabb helped awardees and applicants alike learn how to negotiate colleges’ aid offers, maximize the public funding available to them, and minimize taking out private loans. Kevin Heuer, Director of Engagement & Impact at the Community Foundation says, “Choosing a college and figuring out how to pay for it is one the biggest financial decisions someone will make. Often, there is no one guiding them through that process. We wanted to make sure any applicant could get time with an experienced advisor like Emi to help them get the best offer from their school and make the smartest choice about where to attend.”

A Community of Service & Support

Combined, our 100 leading scholarship applicants did nearly 14,000 hours of volunteer service at Santa Cruz County nonprofit organizations who are also grantees of our Community Grants program. These nonprofits provide meaningful ways for teens to get involved in their community and many of them provide critical wrap-around services for youth and their families. Applicants were active in dozens of organizations including, Second Harvest Food Bank, Watsonville Wetlands Watch, Salud y Cariño, Black Surf Club Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County Black Health Matters Initiative, Watsonville Film Festival, Senderos, Queer Youth Leadership Awards, and many, many more.

Meet the 34 local students who received scholarships through Community Foundation Santa Cruz County in 2023

JUDY ANTON WOMAN OF VALOR / LUPITA LOVES TO READ PROJECT SCHOLARSHIP

Zoe Barrera, Soquel High School (UC Santa Cruz)

R.H. BEEL MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

Ruben Canchola-Jimenez, Santa Cruz High School (Cabrillo College)

BURTON SCHOLARSHIP

Andrew Alvarado, Watsonville High School (UC San Diego)

Maya Manildi, Harbor High School (UC Berkeley)

Greta Mitchell, Santa Cruz High School (UC San Diego)

Rachelle Pastor-Juarez, Watsonville High School (UC Los Angeles)

Grace Shipp, San Lorenzo Valley High School (Willamette University)

BOB AND BETSY DARROW SCHOLARSHIP

Nadia Gomez Cruz, Santa Cruz High School (San Francisco State University)

Leslie Valdivia Mendoza, Harbor High School (San Francisco State University)

JACK DEBORD MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

Katie Wise, San Lorenzo Valley High School (Point Loma Nazarene University)

HANK GARCIA JR. AND FAMILY SCHOLARSHIP

Riley Carrera, Aptos High School (UC Davis)

Morielle Mamaril, Watsonville High School (Cornell University)

Alondra Martinez, St. Francis High School (Cal Poly SLO)

Abigail Rader, Monte Vista High School (Pepperdine University)

Karla Leyva, Pajaro Valley High School (Yale University)

EMMETT AND ELSIE GEISER SCHOLARSHIP

Nadia Ramirez-Cerrillos, Aptos High School (San Jose State University)

Ana Ruiz-Macias, Watsonville High School (UC Irvine)

Karla Leyva, Pajaro Valley High School (Yale University)

LAURA SEGURA MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

Lexus Castrejon-Cervantes, Aptos High School (San Francisco State University)

Reyna Maharaj, Saint Francis High School (UC San Diego)

Anonymous, Santa Cruz County Office of Education School (Cabrillo College)

ISABEL FOWLER SEWELL SCHOLARSHIP

Aramis Diaz, Pajaro Valley High School (Cabrillo College)

Jose Gonzalez Arreola, Pajaro Valley High School (CSU Monterey Bay)

Julissa Rocha, Pajaro Valley High School (UC Los Angeles)

Brandon Romero, Pajaro Valley High School (UC Santa Cruz)

Adilene Solano, Pajaro Valley High School (Cabrillo College)

BERT AND CAROLYN POST SCHOLARSHIP

Victoria Zumaya Long, Santa Cruz High School (University of Hawaii Mānoa)

LOUIS J. AND MARY ELLEN SCHULTZ SCHOLARSHIP

Sofia Cunha, Aptos High School (UC Berkeley)

YaQi Wang, Harbor High School (UC Irvine)

SIMUNOVICH FAMILY AGRICULTURE SCHOLARSHIP

Priscilla Noh, Watsonville High School (The Master’s University)

BARBARA J. THOMPSON SCHOLARSHIP

Estrella Contreras, Santa Cruz High School (UC Berkeley)

Emma Lin, Harbor High School (UC Berkeley)

Lynda Otero, Soquel High School (UC Berkeley)

Amy Canizal-Flores, Harbor High School (Sacramento State University)

JOHN L. TURNER SCHOLARSHIP

Selina Salvador-Lopez, Watsonville High School (San José State University)