Scholarships open doors for seniors
May 17, 2017
Fueled by passion for their extracurriculars, two Diamond Bar High School seniors are among those who received scholarship grants for their partic
ipation in various activities.
Remaining close to home, Miranda Tejada will attend the University of La Verne under the Performance Scholarship she received in theater. The scholarship had six different divisions: art, communications, music, photography, speech and theater. Two participants from each division were awarded a scholarship and in total, there are twelve scholarship winners.
An active member of the DBHS theater program, Tejada heard about the University of La Verne’s Performance Scholarship award from interns while working for Ophelia’s Jump, a theater group created by DBHS drama teacher Beatrice Casagran.
After receiving information about the scholarship and attending several of the university’s productions, she decided to apply for the scholarship under the theater division.
What caught her eye the most, however, was the university’s small theater group.
“They’re more connected together, they’re more of a family than we are here at Diamond Bar,” Tejada said.
The application process required applicants to submit a ten minute video of one of their drama performances. Tejada pulled clips from DBHS performances of “Into the Woods,” “Journey to the West” and “Les Miserables.”
As a theater design major, she hopes to pursue her career further by helping out with various shows.
“I want to do sound for shows, costume for shows, light for shows,” she said. “Maybe some acting here and there too. I just want to do theater.”
La Verne, which was Tejada’s top choice, will grant her $25,000 each year and pay the full tuition for her final year.
Attending University of Irvine in the fall, former Miss Diamond Bar Ashley Chen was awarded various grants: the Diamond Bar Woman’s Club Eileen Tillery Community Service Scholarship, Girls’ League Scholarship, Chen Pai-Lee Memorial Scholarship and California Asian Peace Officer Association Scholarship.
The first scholarship she received was the Peace Officer award, which was originally intended for people looking in the law enforcement field. Although Chen was interested in hotel management, she applied nonetheless and received the award.
Her other scholarships were earned through her community service and volunteering. As Miss Diamond Bar 2016, she received a
wards for her volunteer service within the city.
Furthermore, the Miss Diamond Bar organization also granted her the largest portion of her monetary scholarships. Her favorite scholarship award, however, is the Women’s Club Eileen Tillery scholarship.
“I’m so honored to be awarded a scholarship in her memory because Eileen Tillery inspires me to be the person I strive to be everyday,” she said. “She’s just a person I look up to dearly because of her extensive service towards the community and giving back and I hope to be like her someday.”
The Chen Pai-Lee Memorial Scholarship was a grant given specifically to Taiwanese- American students who excelled in academics, community service and extracurricular activities.
“I signed up for this scholarship because I’m heavily involved in my Taiwanese-American identity,” she said. “I had a lot of experience with the Taiwanese-American community, so the scholarship essay was easy to write.”
In addition, Chen was also given the Ronald Reagan Student Leader Award in recognition of her involvement within Diamond Bar and the global community.
“The biggest reason why I applied for these scholarships and was motivated to write so many essays was because of my mom,” Chen said. “She was basically my chauffeur and drove me everywhere. I’m so appreciative for her putting in so much time for me to be able to give back to the community.”
The other winners of this year’s Girls’ League Scholarship were Stephanie Pan and Zaid Parekh.