Rotary awards $63,000 to students Rotary awards $63,000 to students (March 30, 2005)

** Two students win $10,000 scholarships.

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

Sixteen local high school seniors have won $63,000 in scholarships from the Rotary Club of Menlo Park in recognition of academic achievement, leadership and community service.

Two $10,000 John D. Russell scholarships were awarded to Nefara Riesch of Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton, and Dallas Teo of Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto.

Five seniors received $5,000 scholarships: Joanna Leon from Eastside Prep, who received the Doris and Ormond Rector Scholarship; Sergei Shev, who received the Robert Paroli Scholarship; and M-A's Yesenia Calderon and Eastside Prep's Maricruz Alvarado and Elizabeth Farias, all of whom received Major Scholarships.

Nine seniors received $2,000 scholarships. They are, from Sacred Heart Prep, Tyler Snell and Nicole Villeneuve; and from Menlo-Atherton High School, Amie Baron, Julia Choe, Collin Cronkite-Ratcliff, Andrew Lockhart, Allison Sommer, Jessica Van Rheenen and Kelly Wright.
Nefara Riesch

"I'm basically really surprised (and) excited," said Nefara, who won one of the $10,000 scholarships. "Financially, I really needed it to get to college."

At Sacred Heart, Nefara has a cumulative grade point average of 4.03, takes mostly honors and advanced placement classes, and holds several leadership positions, including editor of the newspaper and campus point person for diversity issues, she said.

Her community service included helping build a house for a homeless family in Mexico, tutoring Native American children in New Mexico, and being active in Students Against Drunk Driving, she said.

Both the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles have sent her acceptance letters, she said. Which school she chooses will depend on the financial aid package.

Asked about her background, Nefara said her family has moved 20 times since she was 8 years old. "We've always been living in other people's houses, renting rooms and stuff."

Her mother is raising her and her two younger brothers alone and recently lost her job as a cashier, Nefara said. At her new job, her mother makes less than half her previous wage.

"My greatest goal is to just be able to take care of my brothers and my mom," Nefara said, adding that she hopes to one day give her children a life with less financial stress than she has had. She plans to study journalism and world history.
Dallas Teo

Dallas Teo's reaction to the scholarship? "I think it's awesome," he said. "I'm just really excited and I'll be sure to make good use of it."

At Eastside Prep, Dallas' cumulative GPA is also over 4.0 and he spends a lot of his time at school helping to organize events and tutor students in a program he helped to create. He founded a student-teacher book club that meets weekly and is a co-editor of the school newspaper.

Dallas also founded a fundraising coalition with Castilleja School in Palo Alto. This year, the students raised $25,000 for Save the Children, which will go toward building a school in Ethiopia, he said.

He has an early acceptance from Stanford, his first choice of schools, where he said he is weighing a double major in English and either anthropology or linguistics, with an ultimate goal of teaching kids who live with economic hardships, as he does.

He's the youngest of nine children and lives in an apartment with his mom, who is retired, and two older brothers. His father passed away. Everyone contributes a share of the rent from biweekly Social Security and pension checks. As pay day approaches, the cupboard is often bare, he said.
More information

Of 47 applications for the scholarships, the club's scholarship committee interviewed 29 students and chose 16 for awards. Financial need was a factor in awarding the two $10,000 and five $5,000 scholarships.

Scholarship funds are deposited with each student's college and disbursed to the student for tuition and related expenses.

Menlo Park real estate broker John Borcich chaired the club's scholarship committee; other members were Tim Leary, Harlow Johnson, Erv Ericksen and Jackie Scholerman.

For more information, call Rotary Club president Bruce Solomon at 617-9440 or John Borcich at 321-2112.

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