COUNTYWIDE : Mexican-American Bar to Give Awards

More than two dozen outstanding Orange County high school graduates will be presented with $34,000 in scholarship awards this weekend by the Mexican-American Bar Assn.

The fourth annual awards banquet will be held Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at the Casa Maria restaurant at 1801 E. Katella Ave. in Anaheim. All 27 of the award winners are honors graduates.

Michael Thompson of El Modena High School in Orange and Monica Garcia of Sonora High School in La Habra will each receive the Efren Herrera Foundation Scholarship Award of $2,500, given to students with the highest grade-point averages. Thompson graduated with a 4.70 average, and Garcia’s GPA was 4.39.

Anna Torres of Santa Ana High and Justin Indyk of Edison High in Santa Ana will both receive the Past President’s Scholarship Award of $2,000.

The Bench and Bar Scholarship awards, of $1,500, will go to Rodrigo Orduno of Saddleback High School and Allison May of Mater Dei High School, both in Santa Ana.

Merit Scholarship Awards of $1,500 will go to Elizabeth Cruz of Valley High School, Santa Ana; Paola Ramirez of Laguna Hills High School; Veronica Briseno of Capistrano Valley High School, Mission Viejo; Jeffrey Melo of Mission Viejo High School; Allison Perez of Santa Ana High School, and Benjamin Segura of Brea-Olinda High School.

Recipients of Merit Scholarship Awards of $1,000 are:

Marta Baca, Irvine High School; Hector Ramirez, Sonora High School; Gladys Recinos and Claudia Valerio, both of Valencia High School, Placentia; Martha Navarro and George Olivera, both of Santa Ana High School; Danilo Cuevas, La Habra High School; Sonia Cortez, Huntington Beach High School; Engles Torres, Valley High School; Eraina Ortega, Garden Grove High School, and Carlos Xolocotzi, Saddleback High School.

Other awards include the Carl Ekern Memorial Scholarship Award of $1,000, which will be given to Roberto Almeida of Garden Grove High School, and the ITT Cannon Engineering Scholarship Award of $1,000, which will be given to Alexander Yera of Marina High School, Huntington Beach.

Premed scholarships of $1,000 each will be awarded to Victor Suarez of Mater Dei High School and Elizabeth Macias of Westminster High School.