Thousands Eligible for Scholarship Program

More than 113,000 of California’s top-performing high school students learned Thursday that they are eligible for $1,000 merit scholarships under the Governor’s Scholars Awards program.

Gov. Gray Davis, who made the initiative a cornerstone of his 2000 education reform package, announced the awards at an assembly at Cleveland High School in Reseda.

“Extraordinary results deserve extraordinary rewards,” Davis told several hundred students, teachers and parents jammed into the school auditorium. “This is not a giveaway program; it is a merit program.”

With more than two dozen of the school’s 196 scholarship winners standing behind him on stage, Davis encouraged the students to study hard, plan for college and expect to be rewarded for their efforts.

“If you didn’t get [a scholarship] this year, guess what: The Stanford 9s are coming again in March and April, and you have another chance,” Davis said, referring to the standardized testing that is used to gauge student performance. “I want people to go to college, and I don’t want money to be a barrier.”

Davis was introduced by Marisa Del Pino, 18, Cleveland’s Associated Student Body president and a scholarship recipient. She said that the $1,000 will help pay her tuition at one of the University of California campuses to which she has applied.

“My sister attends UC Davis, and it’s going to be tough, financially, next year, and we are really going to depend on scholarships and grants,” said Del Pino, who is taking Advanced Placement classes in physics, calculus and literature and plans to major in sociology.

Cleveland Principal Al Weiner said Davis decided to make the announcement at the west San Fernando Valley campus because of its diverse student population and nationally recognized humanities program, and because 93% of its graduates go on to four-year colleges, community colleges or other postsecondary education programs.

“Our school demonstrates that students from diverse backgrounds can achieve,” he said.

The $118-million program awards $1,000 scholarships to ninth-, 10th- and 11th-grade students who demonstrate high academic achievement on the statewide Stanford 9 examinations.

Students who score in the top 10% of their class or top 5% statewide on the Stanford 9 mathematics and English language arts tests are eligible to claim $1,000 awards.

Awards are held in an interest-bearing account administered by the ScholarShare Investment Board in the state treasurer’s office.

The money may be used to pay fees or tuition at any accredited postsecondary institution. Students have up to five years to claim their awards, which may be used until the student reaches age 30.