2 Students to Receive $5,000 Scholarships

When lifelong Arleta resident Juan Navarro enters the University of Redlands this fall, the 18-year-old who graduated from Monroe High School in North Hills with a 4.4 grade-point average will be the first in his immediate family to attend college.

The university recruited Navarro for the track and football teams. He will study communicative disorders, a subject personally familiar to Navarro, who sometimes stutters.

“I had to go to college,” Navarro said. “It was a must. It seems to me I have a responsibility not only to my family but to my teachers and people who pushed me to my limits. The only way to reward them is to show them my college degree. That’s the best way I can repay them.”

Jacqueline Contreras, 18, of Pacoima graduated from San Fernando High School with a 3.59 GPA and, similar to Navarro, enters Loyola Marymount University this fall as the first in her immediate family to attend a college.

For their trailblazing efforts, Contreras and Navarro have each received a scholarship designed for students in their situation from the Coca-Cola Foundation and the Independent Colleges of Northern and Southern California.

Through the First Generation Scholarship, the students each will get $5,000 a year to help pay for their studies. They have the option to reapply annually for the funds for each year they attend school.

The scholarship program is new to California this year.