Milestones and legacies

They weren’t all Advanced Placement aces or scholars headed to Harvard and Yale. And even those who were had something beyond hard work and good grades to thank for the checks and the accolades.

Surrounding the 333 scholarship winners at Garfield High last week was a deep pool of loyal Bulldog supporters, willing to invest in their success.

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FOR THE RECORD:
Garfield High awards: Sandy Banks’ column in Tuesday’s Section A on Awards Night at Garfield High School said Princeton University’s presenter, Adriana De La Rosa, a graduate of Roosevelt High, grew up in East Los Angeles. De La Rosa grew up in South Los Angeles and commuted to a magnet program at Roosevelt. The column also implied that the scholarships offered by Boys of Belvedere —a group of Garfield alumni who work with East L.A. youths -- were funded by a board member’s lottery winnings. The lottery money provided funding for one scholarship; the rest came from fundraisers and alumni donations.

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When Garfield college counselor Deborah Head put out the call for donors this year, enough retired teachers, former students and family members of alums wrote checks to guarantee that every college-bound Garfield grad who asked would leave Awards Night with a scholarship check.

The grants ranged from $250 to $1,000 — enough for books, a bus pass, a pair of warm boots. But it’s not just the money that is meaningful, it’s the message of the collective largess.

The night was intended to nudge hardworking students toward future success.

But it also felt like a testimony to Garfield’s history — a celebration of the strength and depth of a community too often associated in the public mind with poverty and gangs and crime.

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The death of Jaime Escalante this spring brought a flurry of bittersweet attention to Garfield, where he taught from 1974 to 1991. After all, the legendary calculus teacher represented for many not only the beginning but the end of an era when Garfield was known for its academics.

His influence on Awards Night was hard to miss. A group of Escalante’s former students awarded 10 scholarships to high achievers. The Jaime Escalante Spirit Award went to a struggling student with better goals than grades. Escalante’s son was on stage to hand out the awards and drew loud applause when he addressed the crowd.

But the evening went way beyond an Escalante tribute. The ceremony on the school’s back lawn lasted 2 1/2 hours. The printed program was 15 pages long.

The Garfield Alumni Foundation alone awarded 20 scholarships, based on students’ grades; school and community service; financial need; and desire to succeed. “It’s not just for the doctors and rocket scientists,” said Dede Vidales, Class of ’76.

Several students wore a path in the grass going back and forth from their seats to the stage: valedictorian Marichuy Gomez, heading to Smith College with a 4.43 GPA and six scholarships; Kevin Duran, a football player who commutes to Garfield from South Los Angeles and works part-time helping the custodian on campus; and Johanna Becerra, who will attend USC this fall with six scholarships and a plan to become an aerospace engineer.

I found the array of donors just as compelling as the students. Some scholarships came from conventional sources — local banks and businesses, national groups with essay contests, big names such as radio DJ Art Laboe and Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

But most were underwritten by folks without such deep pockets.

Retired social studies teacher John Benson parlayed a $2,000 gift from former students at his 2004 retirement party into a $100,000 scholarship endowment. Benson coached girls volleyball and softball during his 36 years at Garfield. This year, he funded 16 scholarships for student athletes.

The five Navar siblings, all alumni, sponsored a scholarship to honor their mother, Herlinda. Betty Smart Muldoon, Class of 1946, comes every year from her home in Los Gatos to deliver a dozen awards.

Some grants reflect a community’s emerging philanthropic bent; others its quirky sensibilities.

The Boys of Belvedere, a youth organization, was able to provide 16 scholarships this time because one of its board members, a Pico Rivera mail carrier, donated some of his $34,000 lottery winnings.

The Nite Owls sent three students off to East Los Angeles Community College with $500 grants, because that’s the college club members attended. Three founding members, Donald Perez, Larry Weiss and Hrair Shekerjian from the Class of 1955, presented the awards and praised the winners: “a terrific young lady with tremendous potential; a good student who’s aiming for USC or Cal State Dominguez; a hard worker with many goals to achieve.”

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I was surprised that such a momentous night on the Garfield campus seemed so low-key. The Garfield Alumni Foundation provided a buffet dinner and a giant arch of red-and-blue balloons.

But the parents clearly were outnumbered by students; the principal showed up late from an off-campus meeting; and the school’s website barely mentioned the event, highlighting instead an earlier ceremony honoring students for perfect attendance.

The mood troubled Adriana De La Rosa, who grew up in East L.A. — Roosevelt High, Class of ’91 — and now heads South Central LAMP, a social service organization. She was on stage at Garfield to present the Princeton University Book Award, a symbolic honor, to a high-achieving 11th grader.

She summed up perfectly what the night was all about — a community celebrating its achievements and its potential.

“These scholarships, these students’ accomplishments … this is such a huge deal,” she said.

She recounted for me her own graduation, when she won a four-year scholarship to Princeton and her mother had no idea what that meant. “She had never heard of the college,” De La Rosa said.

“Something as simple as a high school graduation that Americans take for granted is something these immigrant families may never have experienced,” she said.

Her enthusiasm bubbled over on stage. She spoke to the crowd in Spanish, thanking the parents, reminding them that only 35% of Latino students in Los Angeles graduate and that they should be very proud of their children.

She told me she hopes the parents understand and support their children’s dreams.

And I hope their children understand that they are heading off to college not just as students but as links in a chain, carrying with them both a legacy and promise.

sandy.banks@latimes.com