Student Uses Internet to Snag Scholarships

When it comes to finding scholarships, computers can be among the most useful of tools to high school seniors.

Ask Gloria Gutierrez. The Sylmar High School senior who graduated Friday and plans to attend Brown University in Providence, R.I., this fall recently received nine scholarships that she discovered online.

“I just used the Internet,” said Gutierrez, 18. “I applied to 35 schools.”

Gutierrez, who studied in Sylmar High’s math, science and technology magnet program and finished with a 4.33 cumulative grade point average, said she plans to study medicine and become a virologist.

She estimates she received about $15,000 in scholarships to put toward her freshman year in college.

One four-year scholarship Gutierrez located on the Web, from the California Masonic Foundation, is worth $2,500 each year.

The foundation awarded 64 such scholarships to California high school students this year, along with 12 scholarships that provided students $10,000 per year for four years, said Judy Liang, the program’s coordinator.

Like Gutierrez, Adam Watt, a Sunland resident who graduates from the Voyager Charter School in La Crescenta this year, received $2,500 a year for four years, Liang said.

The scholarships, based on need and an essay students submitted, do not strictly specify how the money should be used, though “naturally, the students should use it for tuition fees and housing,” Liang said.

Liang also suggested that the funds might help students buy computers for their dormitory rooms.