Vanguard offers scholarships to Costa Mesa, Estancia grads

Christine Carrillo

Vanguard University will provide $20,000 scholarships to four seniors

at Costa Mesa and Estancia high schools this year, part of a campaign

to strengthen its bonds with the Newport-Mesa community.

Having already established a similar relationship with schools in

the Santa Ana Unified School District, Vanguard has turned its

attention to building a better working relationship with its closest

neighbors in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

“It’s part of our initiative at the university to reach out to our

local community,” said Dave Elliott, associate vice president of

university relations at Vanguard. “We’re trying to be more involved.

We feel sometimes students forget you’re there because you’re so

close or they think, ‘I can’t afford to go there anyway because it’s

a private school.’”

Trying to erase those misconceptions and encourage graduating

students in Costa Mesa to rethink attending Vanguard, officials will

offer two students from each school $5,000 recurring scholarships.

“I’m real pleased that Vanguard has entered into a cooperative

relationship with our district,” said Jaime Castellanos, assistant

superintendent for the district. “I think they do well by our

students by helping them out financially.”

With the scholarships, Vanguard officials hope to encourage

students to continue their education. They made them recurring

scholarships to encourage students to complete their education.

“We want students to stay in school and finish,” Elliott said.

“It’s a retention factor ... that tends to be an incentive for kids

to stay in school and finish.”

About 80% of Vanguard’s student body comes from Southern

California.

The scholarship will financially assist students up to eight

semesters, making each scholarship worth about $20,000.

“It’s a big help for our kids. I’m really happy and thankful to

Vanguard University for the support,” Castellanos said. “I think it’s

going to help defray a lot of the cost that otherwise would keep some

of our kids out of college, who couldn’t afford it.”

To qualify for the scholarship students must graduate from one of

the two schools, show leadership qualities and service in the

community and have a 3.0 grade point average or higher.

The scholarship, which will begin this fall, is the first step in

a partnership that school officials hope to expand throughout the

district.

“We’re very excited about it because it’s a nice partnership ...

with the schools in Costa Mesa,” Estancia Principal Tom Antal said.

“They’re great partners, from this end and we hope to be as good for

them.”