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The Turlock Certified Farmers Market awarded $1,500 in scholarship money last month to high school seniors.
Turlock High’s Arianna Mendoza and Seth Salabor, and Pitman’s Elijah Rhoads, each received a $500 scholarship to continue their education next fall.
Mendoza is planning on attending Stanislaus State, where she wants to major in kinesiology and hopes to one day become a physical therapist.
“My uncle suffered a stroke and seeing all the physical therapy he had to go through during his recovery was very interesting to me,” said Mendoza. “And that’s kind of motivated me to help out more people. I can see myself helping people after a stroke, or after surgery, and things like that.”
Salabor plans on attending Fresno State and majoring in electrical engineering.
“I’ve seen firsthand how much agriculture in the Central Valley depends on electrical engineering,” said Salabor. “And when I graduate, I want to come back and help farmers sustain their systems for farming.”
Rhoads plans on attending Modesto Junior College before transferring to Fresno State. He hopes to become an agricultural pest-control advisor.
“What I hope to do is go into farms and identify, better than a machine ever could, what exactly is wrong with the plant and how to fix it,” said Rhoads. “Whether it’s a lack of nitrogen to a lack of sunlight or water, I want to help make sure everything is right on.”
Jeani Ferrari and Elizabeth Claes, for whom the scholarship is named, were on hand to dole out the prizes.
“I look over my shoulder sometimes and I wonder who’s going to take over all the work that’s being done in this community,” said Ferrari. “And it’s these young kids. They know how important it is, and what they wrote in their essays and what they said about themselves was really inspiring.”
Claes, the former president of TCFM, agreed.
“When I was president of the farmers market, one of the things we were really interested in was how do we bring education, in kind of a unique way, to the farmers market,” said Claes. “It was a no-brainer to create a scholarship and really promote what we are as an entity in regards to our local youth.”
