College-bound grads get financial helping hand

From left to right are Alpine Woman’s Club President Linda Whitlock, students Devon Fox, Robert A. Dennett and Skylar Larsen.

The Alpine Woman’s Club awarded scholarships to Robert A. Dennett, Devon Fox, and Skylar Larsen recently through their Scholarship, Preservation and Education Foundation in a program that dates back to 1950.
All three students reside in Alpine.
“It is an absolute joy to receive applications each year from our Alpine students who are continuing their education at a college, university or vocational school. It is always extremely hard to choose winners from our phenomenal cohort of applicants, but we are pleased to award three $2,000 scholarships this year,” club president Linda Whitlock said.
All three recipients ad¬dressed their family and attending Woman’s Club members in speeches given at the banquet celebration.
Approaching the stage first was Dennett, 18, a graduate of River Valley Charter School who will be attending Fort Lew¬is College in Durango, Colorado this fall. He said he plans to pursue law and would consider running for office so as to serve the public and help those in need.
Dennett addressed attendees in soft-spoken tones, as he shared some of the challenges he faced through his diagnosis of Dyspraxia—a developmental coordination disorder— as a kindergartener and how he did not learn to read until he was 10 years old.
Following Dennett was 19-year old Fox, a graduate of Steele Canyon High School. He is an Alpine native and Boy Scout who recently earned his Eagle rank.
Fox thanked the Women’s Club for the scholarship and said he will use the award to¬ward his tuition as an upcoming Criminal Justice major at San Diego State University with an eye toward working with California Highway Patrol after graduation. Fox ultimately wants to work with the FBI.
Fox said he has wanted to get into law enforcement since he was 12 years old.
“I was involved in a situation where I was held at gunpoint when I was very young. It was a very scary situation and it made me want to help people who need protecting,” Fox said.
Larsen, 18, recently graduated from Mount Everest Academy as class valedictorian and was the final recipient of this year’s Woman’s Club scholarship. Her interests range from organic chemistry to exoplanet research and she plans to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall where she will continue to work with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.
Off-stage, Larsen talked about how excited she is to attend MIT because she can explore a few different paths in science without having to declare a major until her sophomore year, although she is most focused on working with exoplanet re-search.
“One of my dreams is to find life on another planet, something, bacteria, anything. That would be amazing,” Larsen said.
The three students can add their names to the long list of more than 213 recipients who have received funding from the club since its inception; more than $131,000 has been given out through the scholarship program since 1950.
Whitlock said she appreciates hearing back from past recipients describing how their studies are going after spending a year in college.
Whitlock shared a statement from Carson Saflar, who received the scholarship in 2018.
“The Alpine Woman’s Club scholarship really helped me during my first year at Loyola Marymount University. The $2000 allowed me to purchase a high-quality laptop with all of the software needed for film production. That purchase let me get some experience in quickly, which led me to getting an on-campus production job. I’m really grateful for all the opportunities that are given from the Alpine Woman’s Club scholarship, Saflar said in an email.
Scholarship Committee Chairman Suzie Curtis said that she has had the privilege of reading every essay from the past two years’ worth of applications and has come to appreciate the unique qualities of each applicant.
“Every student has qualities that we are all eager to see in our young people; caring, community involvement, study oriented, goal driven and more. We, in Alpine, should be so proud of our graduating students for they are eager to make Alpine and their world a better place,” Curtis said.

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