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By Mila Besich Lira
Superior High School seniors were awarded $74,500 in scholarships during the annual high school honors assembly. This amount does not include the scholarships supported by the United Superiorites Organization; those will be awarded later this month. Also not included are the CAC Promise for the Future scholarships.
Angel Cardenas and Christine Grap were awarded the the US Army recognition award along with the Army Scholar Athlete Recognition. Cardenas and Grap have already signed commitments to join the US Army following graduation. After their service to the Army they will be eligible to use the Post 911 GI Bill that can be used for education for up to $120,000.
The overall big winner for the night was Kortney Urquijo who was awarded the Grand Canyon University Scholarship, Woodmen of the World Scholarship, Superior Education Association Scholarship, David Montano Memorial Scholarship, and the Stephanie Ward Memorial Scholarship. In total she was awarded over $40,000 in awards to put towards her college degree program at Grand Canyon University.
Resolution Copper was also another big contributor to the Honors Assembly, awarding three scholarships. Nicole Godinez was awarded the educational scholarship, Adan Villalobos was awarded the training scholarship and Jessica Fraijo was awarded the Steven L. Besich Leadership grant.
SHS Alumni Manuel and Sandra Silvas awarded their financial aid grant to Matthew Kipp. The Silvas grant is awarded to one graduating senior who expresses financial need for college.
Local service clubs the Superior Rotary, Optimist and Social clubs also awarded several scholarships. The Social Club de Damas awarded Jessica Fraijo and Alyssa Barragan with scholarships. The Superior Rotary scholarships were awarded to Louie Fuentes and Matthew Kipp and the Superior Optimist/Richard Castaneda memorial scholarship was awarded to Jessica Fraijo and Aliya Perez. Woodman of the World provided scholarships for Jessica Fraijo, Nicole Godinez, Kortney Uriqujo, Yulissa Sandoval, and Aliya Perez.
One way that Superior families like to remember their family members who have passed is with memorial scholarships. This year was the first year for the Stephanie Ward memorial scholarship the recipients were Jesse Aguilar and Kourtney Urquijo. The David Montano Memorial Scholarships were awarded to Nicole Godinez, Yulissa Sandoval, Dominique Madueno, Jesse Aguilar and Kortney Urquijo. The Lopez/Gomez memorial scholarships were awarded to Nicole Godinez and Aliya Perez.
The Superior Education Association was able to provide three scholarships this year to Aliya Perez, Yulissa Sandoval, and Kortney Urquijo. Pinal Federal Credit Union gives out one scholarship per high school in Pinal County for a student planning on attending CAC, Yulissa Sandoval received that scholarship. Nicole Godinez received the Delta Kappa Gamma scholarship.
After the scholarship presentations the faculty at SHS recognized top students in their classrooms and all honor roll students were recognized.
See more photos online at http://bit.ly/YsNjhq.
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