A luncheon was recently held to honor three Gardena school students who for earning high grades and for their involvement in improving their community.
At the July 23 event, held in the Gardena City Hall council chambers, Isabel Guerrero, Audrey Lyu, and Robert Alexander were each awarded $4,000 to be applied toward their college expenses when they start school in the fall.
A luncheon was recently held to honor three Gardena school students who for earning high grades and for their involvement in improving their community.
At the July 23 event, held in the Gardena City Hall council chambers, Isabel Guerrero, Audrey Lyu, and Robert Alexander were each awarded $4,000 to be applied toward their college expenses when they start school in the fall.
Gene Hale, chairman of the Gardena Police Foundation, which co-sponsored the scholarship program, along with G&C Equipment and Southwest Offset Printing, said it was time to shine a spotlight on the great things that students in Gardena are doing.
“This is an outgrowth of the foundation,” Hale said. “We thought it would be a good idea to recognize some of these kids here in Gardena and get them started in school with a scholarship.”
Hale’s company, G&C Equipment Corp. sponsored Pacific Lutheran graduate Audrey Lyu, 18, who plans to attend Cal State Long Beach this fall. In addition to maintaining a solid 4.0 GPA during her high school career, Lyu also found time to start a Hope Club, which delivered food to needy teenagers. She also raised money for teenage homeless awareness. After college, Lyu plans to pursue a career as a mental health therapist.
“I’d like to thank the foundation for this scholarship opportunity and my principal for letting me know about this scholarship so that I may be able to work hard and try my best for this award,” Lyu said. “I’ll put it to good use. I promise you that.”
Gardena High graduate Isabel Guerrero, 18, was sponsored by Southwest Offset Printing (owned by Steve Rogers, GFD vice chairman) and maintained a 3.7 GPA. Guerrero was part of the JROTC for all four years of high school and plans to study psychology and sociology at UC Merced this fall.
“This scholarship that I am receiving is a true blessing,” Guerrero said. “Being recognized by the Gardena Police Foundation is a true honor.”
The third recipient, Robert Alexander, 18, was awarded his scholarship by the Gardena Police Foundation thanks in part to his 3.4 GPA as well as his involvement in his school’s jazz band, theater club, and debate team. In addition, he regularly tutors younger students in his spare time. Alexander is the first in his family to attend college. He plans to attend Mt. San Antonio College with a career goal of becoming a firefighter.
“This is amazing,” Alexander said. “This was so helpful to me and my family. I’m doing this by myself and just to see the department really does care about the youth to help out like this giving back makes me want to get my degree and find a way to give back to other people.”
Lauren Miller-Cole, president of the Gardena Police Foundation, said the selection process for the scholarship awards began with the Foundation asking the high schools in Gardena to recommend students they believed were deserving of the monetary award.
Once those students were selected, they were given the task of writing a 500-word essay titled, “How will I give back to my community?”
The essays were judged by the scholarship committee comprised of Miller-Cole, Gene Hale, Steve Rogers, GPF Executive Director Lily Hyde, and Gardena Juvenile Justice Intervention Program Supervisor Kim Reddy.
Reddy said that while reading the essays, she wanted to make that the students answered the question adequately, that they were answering exactly what was being asked and that they talked a little bit about their background and how they reached their goals.
Reddy said that what she enjoyed most about the winning essays was the way in which each one gave her a deeper insight into its author.
“Audrey stood out because she described herself as being an introvert initially and having pretty poor social skills which is how she described herself, yet she developed a social club by the end of her high school years, so that stood out.”
While reading Alexander’s essay, Reddy was struck by how focused he was on achieving his dream.
“Robert came out of Serra,” Reddy said. “He stood out because he defined his goals so clearly and he knew exactly what he wanted to do. And I thought it was impressive because as a firefighter, you don’t need a college degree you can just go become a firefighter and that’s what he wants to do, yet his education was that important to him that he wants to pursue academics first.”
When reading Guerrero’s essay, Reddy said she was most impressed with the student’s ability to thrive despite little help from family.
“Isabel described herself as having to stay motivated because she’s the only English speaker in her family and didn’t really have a lot of family support,” Reddy said.
The maximum amount of each scholarship is $4,000 spread out over four years so when the three scholarship winners attend college this fall, they will be required to submit transcripts every year showing that they are maintaining at least a 3.0 GPA. In addition, the recipients will also need to be enrolled as full-time students.
Miller-Cole, a member of the Miller Family that owns and operates the Normandie Casino, said that while the 3.0 GPA college requirement can be challenging, there is hope for the students who might have trouble acclimating to college-level work.
“To be eligible for the scholarship students must have at least a 3.0 GPA and maintain that GPA throughout their college career,” Miller-Cole. “However, there is a deficiency tiered program so if the student struggles at first, they can appeal to maintain the scholarship but they have to show that it was a one-time mistake and that they are working on improving. We want to really help them succeed and not just pull the funds as soon as they have some sort of struggle.
Gardena Police Chief Ed Medrano, who has a son in college, said that the scholarship money will ease the minds of the students and their families worried about the high cost of higher education.
“A lot of people have a lot of struggles,” Medrano said. “It’s not always just financial and being able to guide them through and make them successful and at the end give them some additional incentive to be successful in college is important.”
Rogers believes that the future of Gardena depends on the success of the city’s youth which he says can happen if young people of Gardena can get the help that they need.
“This is a great day,” Rogers said. “This is something that Gene, Lauren, and myself have been striving to initiate through the Foundation for the last couple of years and we finally put it together. It really makes us feel good to do something like this for this community because we truly do believe that the future of our community lies in our youth and anything we can do for our youth to create aspirations, success in our community with our youth, the more positive our community is going to be.”
Hale offered a hopeful message for the three winners.
“The goal [of the scholarship] is to help you get on the road to becoming a better citizen and becoming part of the workforce of America,” Hale said. “So we’re hopeful that once you get on this path, that you will continue that path. What’s more important, once you get to where you think you need to be, you will come back to your community and help someone else and bring them along as well. That’s what being a good citizen, a good person, is all about.”
The GPF’s inaugural scholarship event was followed by a buffet lunch for attendees. (A separate photo gallery of the event is on pages 12-13 of this issue)
