Community Foundation awards over $300,000 in scholarships to local students
Grace Lalanne is a senior at Arroyo Grande High School and created the adaptive skateboard shown above after her brother suffered extensive injuries that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Click here to view a video of the skateboard in action.
62 scholarships to support aspirations of students in the region.
–The Community Foundation of San Luis Obispo County announced this week that they have awarded over $300,000 to 62 local students to help “support the academic aspirations of future leaders of San Luis Obispo County.”
Since 2000, scholarships have been awarded to support a range of studies from music to agriculture and more, recognizing academic excellence and demonstration of leadership qualities.
The Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County works with generous individuals, families, businesses, and organizations to establish scholarship funds supporting students’ higher education goals. The Vineyard and Farm Worker’s Scholarship Fund supports students who are children of vineyard and farmworkers, many of whom are the first in their family to attend college; the Sera Day Coryell Nursing Education Scholarship memorializes Sera’s own life through supporting students pursuing education in nursing. The breadth of interests and recognition in the scholarship program truly speaks to the quality of students that come from SLO County schools.
“Each year I find myself in awe of the energy, excitement, and dreams that exude from our scholarship applicants,” said CEO of The Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County Heidi McPherson. “We are proud to support students with a wide variety of interests and backgrounds from San Luis Obispo County.”
One example of the innovation and energy representative of the scholarship recipients is Grace Lalanne. She is a graduating senior at Arroyo Grande High School who plans to study Psychobiology and is a 2021 recipient of the Gary Paul Piantanida Scholarship Fund. Following a hiking accident in 2016, her 18-year-old brother suffered extensive injuries that left him paralyzed from the waist down. “I didn’t want these injuries to hinder my brother’s previously active lifestyle” said Lalanne. This soon sparked a brother-sister project that caught national attention on The Ellen Show. Lalanne had design and electrical experience from being on the school Robotics team, and her brother was familiar with 3D design software – the two set out to design a skateboard and in four months the adaptive electric skateboard has gained over 100 million views across social media platforms.”
To see the paralysis-defying board visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ4ylC7zPvI.
The Community Foundation is proud to award over 60 scholarships this year, 15 of which will support recipients for all four years of college.
For more information on the scholarships available and to learn how to support these efforts, visit www.cfsloco.org/scholarships/.
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