SANTA BARBARA, Calif.-The Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara is awarding 7.7. million dollars this graduation season.
Hundreds of recipients filled the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Gardens for a group photo following an awards ceremony that had the looks and feel of a graduation.
Parents and relatives and supporters applauded with pride as the recipients went up on the garden steps and announced the named of their scholarship and where they are headed to study.
Foundation President and CEO Melinda Cabrera said donors attend the ceremony year after year.
Some have created memorial scholarships named after loved ones.
“It’s wonderful to see how their gift keeps giving life and opportunity to new students it’s really wonderful,” said Cabrera.
Other scholarships are created to fit criteria. There’s one for a students who bowl and another for young fine artists.
Others come from donations, with no strings attached, allowing the award-winning nonprofit to make sure they go to students in need.
The average undergrad scholarship is $3,500.
Graduate students often receive more.
Students are grateful and excited about their future.
“We are all going up there and saying our names and where we are going off two,” said Dos Pueblos senior Amirsam Jabarri I’m going off to UC Berkeley.”
He wrote an essay and had an interview but he thinks a letter from his English and mock trial teacher Hannah Krieshok helped “seal the deal.
Many of the students already know what they want to do with their education.
San Marco High senior Kian Strenn plans to go to UCSB to study electrical engineering.
“The most important part of our society is our future and I think that donating to help students fulfill their potentials allows us to do thing that we wouldn’t have been able to do before,” said Strenn.
When he can afford to Strenn plans to give back.
“I hold donors to such a high regard, “said Strenn, “I hope one day to be able to give back to the community in the same way.”
The foundation calls that a virtuous circle.
Cabrillo High School senior Jose Soriano plans to go to Santa Barbara City College.
His goal is to become a multi-media journalist or a public information officer.
Donors attended to a thank you dinner following the ceremony at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum.
For more information visit https://sbscholarship.org
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Tracy Lehr is a reporter and the weekend anchor for News Channel 3-12. To learn more about Tracy, click here
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