The 2009 Elks National Foundation’s Scholarship Program
Submitted by Gerry Schiphorst,
Mission Viejo, Saddleback Valley Elks Scholarship Chairman
Students compete for over three million dollars in Elks scholarships.
Local high school students compete for thousands of scholarships ranging from $800 to $4000 and for as much as $20, 000, $40, 000 and $60,000.
During the month of November, Elks Scholarships application forms and posters were delivered to the ten High Schools in the Saddleback Valley, as well as to 3 private Academies. By the deadline of January 9th, the Mission Viejo, Saddleback Valley Elks Lodge had received twenty-one applications. On the 14th, Elks scholarship judges met and the first phase of the judging process started. Each of the ten Orange County Lodges was allowed to send the six highest scores among the girls and the six highest among the boys on to the next level of judging.
In February and March, judging continued. The ten scholarship chairpeople from the Orange Coast District gathered at the Santa Ana Elks Lodge and repeated the judging process, this time to select the 12 girls and 12 boys from all of Orange County whose applications would be forwarded to the Fresno office of the California/Hawaii Elks Association. In Fresno, groups of well qualified judges repeated the process. Each group judging one of the many facets of each application: SAT/ACT-scores, Academic Achievement, Leadership, Honors & Awards, Essays, Extracurricular Activities and the financial ability of the parents. One of the students selected to go on for national judging in Chicago was Jenny Le of El Toro high, which means a guaranteed $4000 and the chance for one of the $20,000, $40,000 or $60,000 scholarships. There were 14 other scholarship winners selected from Orange County schools with four being from the Saddleback Valley: Dylan Moore of Aliso Niguel high school, Gabriella Hoffman of Tessoro high, and Ryne Contreras and Daniel Yi of Trabuco high. Each won State scholarships of $800.
