DOWNEY - Three senior AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) students at Warren High School have earned college scholarships, teacher David Cha announced this week.Kelly Apaza won the Dell Scholarship, worth $20,000 to help her finish college over the course of six years. In addition, as a member of the Dell Scholars Program, Apaza will receive Dell technology, access to a private scholar networking community, resources and mentoring "to ensure they have the support they need to achieve their college degrees," Cha said. Scholars become part of a support network for each other that is made up of themselves, their schools, families, peers and a Dell Scholar team from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Apaza will attend UC Irvine this fall. Meanwhile, Desiree Greenhouse and Hector Rivera won Gates Millennium Scholarships, part of the Gates Millennium Scholars Program established in 1999 by a $1 billion grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The GMS scholarship provides support for the cost of education by covering unmet need and self-help aid; renewable awards for scholars maintaining satisfactory academic progress; graduate school funding for scholars continuing in the areas of computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, pubic health or science; and leadership development programs with personal, academic and professional growth opportunities. The scholarship also funds students who pursue a doctoral degree. The program can essentially help fund 10 years of higher education if the students pursue their studies after high school. Greenhouse, who plans to study pre-medicine at Chapman University but first will major in biology at UC Irvine, picked up bottles last summer to help her family financially while maintaining a rigorous academic schedule. In the process, she started the Flourish and Blotts Club at Warren High to aid others who, like her, need financial support to pay for academic services such as AP exams. Rivera, who will attend Duke University to study political science, arrived from El Salvador at age 12 to join his father in the United States. He taught himself English by circling words in the Los Angeles Times one word at a time.

********** Published: May 19, 2011 - Volume 10 - Issue 5