Shelby Adair
Staff Writer
Everyone loves to receive free items, especially money. Thanks to their extraordinary scholarship notebooks, five lucky Mira Costa seniors have already won $3,000 to aid in helping pay for their college tuition.
Over 200 seniors turned in scholarship notebooks, which were comprised of a school resume, two letters of recommendation, and six pages of supplementary information, such as community service projects or athletic awards.
There are many different scholarships offered, but seniors Tiffany Eide, Colleen Safarik, Roxy Smith, Sarah Teitell, and Tomasina Vollucci were rewarded by the Manhattan Beach Coordinating Council, which is responsible for organizing community service functions and events.
A meeting is held every month by the MBCC to discuss up-coming events happening within the community.
On May 20, these five awardees were invited to attend and were commended at this meeting. While there, council members made speeches explaining the reasons why they felt these students were qualified to win, and the five girls received checks for $3,000 each.
“The Manhattan Beach Coordinating Council’s job is to maintain coordination between civic leaders, non-profit organizations, and schools within the city,” President of the MBCC Stewart Fournier said. “We give the scholarship to five people who have given a great deal back to the community. We look at their involvement and how much time they have spent participating in community service, not just GPA and grades.”
These selected seniors appreciate being recognized out of the many competitive and well-qualified notebooks. All hoped to win an award, but were not expecting to receive $3,000.
“I was shocked to get the schol arship, but more at the amount. This school is so competitive, with so many students involved in sports and clubs,” said Safarik. “There is always somebody else who you think has more rigorous activities. It is surprising in the end because you never know what they are looking for.”
Of the five scholarships given by the MBCC, Smith received one of special importance. This scholarship was named after the former Co-President Phyllis Cohen Edwards, who died from cancer a couple of years ago.
“She did a phenomenal job and was responsible for great change,” Fournier said.
Edward’s family knew how important the MBCC was to her, so every year the family continues to donate money in her honor. As described by Fournier, Smith was chosen for the Phyllis Cohen Edwards Scholarship because of her leadership on the swim team, her commitment to horseback riding, and other admirable qualities.
The College and Career Center informs the senior class of these scholarship opportunities and is in charge of the collection of the scholarship notebooks. They also run the Senior Scholarship Recognition Night that will be on June 21.
“Seventy-five percent of the 200 applicants are actually receiving an award. Most winners do not know until it is announced at the Senior Scholarship Recognition Night. Some are recognized early and receive an award, like those from the Manhattan Beach Coordinating Council scholarships,” CCC counselor Katherine Folkman said.
“I really want to make a scholarship notebook next year. It is really cool that we can win money based on our high school accomplishments,” junior Caitlin Lombardo said.
Many students at Mira Costa looking for financial aid put together these notebooks so that they may qualify for scholarships to help pay for high college tuition cost.
“This will really help out a lot with my college tuition payments,” Vollucci said. “I am really glad my mom forced me to fight through my senioritis to get the application in on time because it was an extremely rewarding experience.”
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