Local High Schoolers Earn Scholarships From Grossmont Healthcare District

A total of 34 scholarships were awarded Friday morning at the Board of Directors meeting for the Grossmont Healthcare District. The district appropriated $76,500 for scholarships to be awarded to graduates of high schools within its boundaries during the 2010-2011 school year. The scholarship money was taken from the district’s grant budget, according to CEO Barry Jantz.

seniors Clarissa Leon and Jazsmen Hilbert were awarded scholarships of $3,000 and $1,500, respectively.

“Clarissa Leon is a pleasant, dependable and hard-working student. I don’t ever recall seeing her without a broad smile on her face,” wrote Kim Roldan, academic advisor at MVHS, in an email. “She has been enrolled in AVID and AP/Honors classes all four years. In her spare time, Clarissa has contributed numerous hours of community service to Sharp Grossmont Hospital. She is a first-generation college student and plans to attend San Diego State University in the Fall. Her future career goal is to become a Pharmacist.”

MVHS counselor Heather Bowler wrote this of Jazmen Hilbert:

“Jazsmen Hilbert is a hard-working, dedicated and compassionate student. She has been involved in track and field as well as Tennis for the past three years. She is also very involved in our Pink Ribbon Club and Sister-to-Sister Club on campus and has volunteered countless hours to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Chula Vista and San Diego. Jazsmen will be attending Northern Arizona University in the Fall to pursue a major in the medical field."

Two students at Mount Miguel High School also received scholarship awards.  Seniors Melissa Meneses and Geraldine Cabreros were given $3,000 and $1,500, respectively.

Bridget Knowles, a teacher with Mount Miguel’s Academy of Medical and Health Sciences, said that Meneses makes her very proud.

“I’ve filled out a half dozen recommendations for Melissa over the past couple of years for internships and scholarship opportunities and there is always a section that wants you to describe the applicant. I feel like I never have enough space to describe Melissa’s positive attributes,” Knowles wrote via email. “Personally, she is witty, thoughtful, consciousness, caring, compassionate. Professionally (as a member of the Academy of Medical and Health Sciences she has demonstrated countless times that she is a professional), she is dependable, competent, self reliant, dedicated and accountable. As a student, she rocks! Besides her obvious intelligence and academic abilities, she is also a supportive peer and leader. This lady is the full package.”

Grossmont Healthcare District awarded the scholarships as a means to encourage young people to consider the health care industry when making their career choices. The students were nominated by their schools, and each is planning to pursue a career in the health care industry at the college level. The winners are all June 2011 graduates who reside in the district, and each has a GPA of no less than a 3.0 (4.0 scale), which was one of the requirements for nomination.

Here is a complete list of scholarship-award recipients:

School

$3,000

$1,500

Chaparral High School

Tiffany King

Lilly Simental

Christian High School

Luke Downey

Stephanie Nash

El Cajon Valley High School

Mirna Fatho

Paloma Samano

El Capitan High School

Cheyenne Shy

Kristy Wilson

Granite Hills High School

James Saelens

Courtney Scholl

Grossmont High School

Amber Dillard

Lina Petrosyan

Grossmont Middle College High School

Farangis Habibzada

Melissa Valdez

Helix High School

Angelina Yu

Lena Quang

Monte Vista High School

Clarissa Leon

Jazsmen Hilbert

Mount Miguel High School

Melissa Meneses

Geraldine Cabreros

Mountain Empire High School

Stephanie Carle

Mercedez Alvarez-Salas

Patrick Henry High School

Stephan Romero

Sean Hui

River Valley Charter School

Jack Houston

Bayann Gouda

Santana High School

Matthew Rasmusson

Tiffany LaPuebla

Steele Canyon High School

Kailyn Franz

Christopher Sirkis

Valhalla High School

Amanda Thomas

Amber Kaminsky

West Hills High School

Melissa Reed

Hana Frank

Congratulations to all of the winners.