Applicants for this year’s Relief Scholarships proved that firefighter kids are incredibly smart and driven. In the end, six students made the difficult cut.
Caroline Skubik (Leo K. Najarian Memorial Scholarship) heads to UCLA. She has yet to declare a major, but she wants to get into communications. She also enjoys costume design and hopes to get involved with the theatre department at the school to possibly parlay that interest into a career.
Paige Rueby (Bill Goss Scholarship) will attend Texas Christian University studying nutrition, a subject that first caught her interest in high school. She plans to become a registered dietician after she gets her degree.
Colin Akahoshi (Relief Scholarship) will go to UC Santa Barbara, where he’ll major in psychology with a focus on business—a combination of his interests. He intends to go into the specialized field of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, which uses psychological techniques to improve the work environment and increase efficiency.
Gavin Wuerfel (Relief Scholarship) hits the Chapman University campus to study business. He wants to get into the stock trading and analysis field, but as an active person, he’s especially excited about the school’s water polo team.
Casey Eugenio (Relief Scholarship) continues a sort of family tradition when he starts classes at University of Oregon, the school from which his brother graduated. He has yet to declare a major, but he’s already on the school’s football team as a preferred walk-on.
Lucas Reiner (Memorial Scholarship) will go to Loyola Marymount to major in accounting and minor in history. The former subject he sees as a stable field of study and the latter he simply enjoys.
Congratulations to all of the winners, each of who gets a financial boost to continue their education. Caroline summed up the feelings of the scholarship recipients when she said, “Thanks [to the ReliefAssociation] for the opportunity. It’s really awesome.”
by David Vienna, LAFRA Staff
Photos by Juan-Carlos Sanchez, LAFRA Staff
