COUNTYWIDE : 10 Latinos Win $1,000 Scholarships

Ten Orange County high school students will receive $1,000 scholarships at the seventh annual awards luncheon of the Efren Herrera Scholarship Foundation at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Tlaquepaque Restaurant in Placentia.

The foundation is a private, nonprofit organization that raises money to aid college-bound Latino students.

It was created seven years ago by Herrera, former place-kicker for the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League and Manuel A. Ramirez, presiding justice of the Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Bernardino.

“All our students are honor graduates from their respective high schools,” said Ramirez, the chairman of the scholarship committee.

He said that money for the scholarships was raised by the Celebrity Golf Classic held June 6.

The scholarship award for the male student with the highest grade-point average and SAT score will go to Heriberto Hernandez Jr., a graduate of Saddleback High in Santa Ana.

The female winner is Marcia Valadez, a graduate of Rosary High in Fullerton.

Seven students are winners of the foundation’s Merit Scholarships.

They are Fabiola Estrada, a graduate of Loara High, Anaheim; Miguel Gomez, Santa Ana High; Eliseo Amezcua, Saddleback High; Michelle Cornman, Rosary High; Julie Reyes, Fountain Valley High; Adrian Montero, Tustin High, and Elpidia Martinez, Santiago High, Garden Grove.

Elizabeth Flores, a graduate of Magnolia High in Anaheim, is the winner of the Carl Ekern Memorial Scholarship Award.

All the scholarship winners will attend four-year universities.