Alumni Association awards selected seniors with scholarships

Ryan Nagy
Staff Reporter

Thirty-two seniors have been awarded Santa Barbara High Alumni Scholarships this year. At a Santa Barbara High School alumni barbecue held at Manning Park in Montecito on May 17, about 100 parents and alumni met in a ceremony to honor the recipients.

Laura Wilson, the Alumni Board Vice President and Scholarship Chair, says that they look for “students who work hard and who have learned to take advantage of their time at SBHS... We also encourage students who might not have started high school intending to go to college, but who came late to the realization that they could and would study to make it happen.”

The first Santa Barbara High Alumni Scholarship was “given in 1974 for only $50.00,” said Wilson. Since then, however, the association has donated more than $510,000.

The Alumni Association does not just award those who have good grades, or who are involved in a bunch of extracurricular activities; they aim to give students a second chance and help those with, “enthusiasm and perseverance in the face of difficulties.”

All of these scholarships are “donated by alumni or groups of alumni, some with specific goals,“ according to Wilson. “The Class of 1962 Scholarship, for example, is intended for a student who is not (planning) to start a four-year college, but who wants a technical or vocational education.”

Since the program was started 34 years ago, Wilson says the amount of scholarships given out has reached $510,000. She estimates about 600 students have been awarded.