Brianna Ledesma

Brianna LedesmaBrianna Ledesma is a 2010 graduating senior from Ventura High School and is the daughter of Roberto J. Ledesma, firefighter/paramedic currently assigned to Air Operations at Fire Station 114. He has been with the Los Angeles Fire Department for 25 years.

Brianna had been looking for other scholarships to support her in school when both her parents told her about the LAFRA Scholarships. Brianna expressed the reason why the scholarship meant so much to her by saying that it is a huge honor, offering "an amazing help that will enable me to focus more on my schooling rather than how I'm going to pay for it."

This coming fall, Brianna will be attending Ventura Community College where she will complete the nursing program and then transfer to a university to further enhance her long time goal of becoming a nurse. But she also has other plans after she becomes a nurse. These include earning a Master's Degree and becoming Physician's Assistant so she can work with children.

During her high school years, Brianna played on the girl's water polo team and also worked a part-time job at In-N-Out. With school, sports, and work she still managed to volunteer time at a church pre-school not too far from her high school, acting as a teacher's assistant. Starting college this year, Brianna decided to give up sports so that she could focus her time on general education and prerequisite’s in nursing before moving onto a university.

Brianna had a few words of encouragement for high school students who are facing challenging times in their academic careers: "No matter how hard they think things are right now, if they simply give up — everything will only get harder. When you achieve something through hard work you realize that anything is possible if you work for it."

Brianna Ledesma graduated with a 4.0 GPA from Ventura High School.

By Andrés Gómez