Students Among Award Recipients

Five promising high school sophomores, three of them from the San Fernando Valley, have been awarded the first Christopher Scholarships, named for Secretary of State and former Los Angeles attorney Warren Christoper, and worth at least $12,000 apiece.

The recipients will officially receive the awards June 17 in a ceremony at Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters, 450 N. Grand Ave.

Christoper may attend if his schedule permits, according to Christopher’s former law firm, O’Melveny & Myers.

The scholarship fund, established last year by the firm, is to support bright, involved 10th-graders who suffer problems with family or finances that could make them dropout risks.

Christopher himself was able to go to college because he received a scholarship after graduating from high school, said law firm partner Stuart Tobisman.

If the Christopher Scholarship recipients go on to graduate high school, they will receive a $12,000 scholarship to attend college.

And if they graduate high school with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.25 or better, the award increases to $16,000.

All of this year’s recipients are on track to garner the extra dollars, with four of the five maintaining straight-A averages.

The recipients are:

Nelson Soto of Chatsworth High School. Soto, a non-native speaker, has become fluent in English while excelling at athletics and music as well as academics. He has a 3.35 GPA.

Shane Cooper of North Hollywood High School. Cooper keeps up a 4.16 GPA while also remaining active in his church, where he works with young children in a youth group.

Monica Campos of Taft High School in Woodland Hills. Campos finds time for the California Scholarship Federation and her school’s Gifted Focus Committee in addition to her church activities. She has a GPA of 4.05.

Le My Hoang of Venice High School. In addition to her numerous activities in and out of school, Hoang qualified for the Golden State Exam High Honors Awards in 1992 and 1993, the Presidential Academic Fitness Award and the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award. She maintains a 4.0 GPA.

Cindy M. Vaca of Belmont High School. With a 4.2 GPA, Vaca is also the reigning Los Angeles Unified District champion in dramatic speech interpretation, and has won numerous awards in drama, music and dance.

O’Melveny & Myers--where Christopher was chairman before joining the Clinton Administration--also supports scholarship programs at O’Melveny Elementary School in San Fernando and San Fernando High School.