Andreya Van Buren

Andreya Van Buren

Newbury Park High School graduate Andreya Van Buren likes a challenge. That's why she's at UCLA earning a degree in the daunting field of psychobiology — the study of the physical makeup of the brain, including nerve structure and brain circuitry, and how that affects behavior. It isn't the first challenge she's met. She worked hard to nab a 2010 Los Angeles Firemen's Relief Association scholarship.

She said earning it proved something she’s always believed: "I can go get something if I put my mind to it."

The former high school volleyball star admits she used to be intently focused on her own path, scoring a 3.5 GPA in high school, until the whole application process made her more conscious of other people.

Her advice to the next wave of scholarship applicants is to keep things simple and honest. She cited the essay portion of the process as an example. In her experience, it wasn't about using the biggest words in her essay, but rather writing from her heart. She concerned herself more with the message than word choice and feels the judges responded to that.

The scholarship she won removed a great deal of pressure from her family. She said, "It meant saving my grandparents and mom a lot of money." She realizes it means more than that, however. "It meant my hard work paid off," she added.

With a busy class schedule at UCLA, Van Buren willingly faces even more challenges and she even knows which ones she wants to tackle after graduation. She hopes to go into research where she can apply her psychobiology degree to searching for the cause of and cure for one of the world's most baffling ailments. "I want to help those with Parkinson's disease."

By David Vienna