HUNTINGTON BEACH : Resident Awards College Scholarship

A Huntington Beach resident has awarded a $4,000 college scholarship to Monica Brych, 17, a Laguna Hills High School senior who will use the money to begin her college career at Mesa Community College in San Diego.

Brych received the scholarship from Stanley Behrens at a senior awards night ceremony at the school last week. She said she plans to transfer to UC Irvine later and major in business.

Behrens, the president and owner of Behrens International, an import-export business in Newport Beach, said that he is also giving financial help to three students currently enrolled at UC Irvine.

He said he selected Brych for the scholarship because of the “spunkiness” she has shown in graduating from high school despite the death of her mother last July and later upheavals in her family life.

Brych said in an interview that the scholarship is “a dream come true.” She said that she planned to attend college with or without a scholarship but that she “would have had to find a job, and it would take really, really a long time.”

“I was really close to my mom, and she wanted me to go on to school,” she said.

Behrens, who feels he is “giving something back to the community,” has agreed to continue Brych’s scholarship through four years of college as long as she maintains a 3.0 grade-point average, performs 90 hours of community service a year and holds several meetings a year in which the two can review goals and ambitions.