Press Release

TEN STUDENTS RECEIVE SCHOLARSHIPS FROM DPS RETIRED EMPLOYEES

Ten top students were awarded $1,000 scholarships each Saturday by the Denver Public Schools Retired Employees Scholarship Foundation during a luncheon ceremony at the Denver Marriott Southeast.

"The diversity of the DPS system has helped me in a lot of ways and I think it will continue to help me in the future," said Montbello High School senior Georgina P. Salomon in accepting the scholarship.

The ten Class of 2000 graduates were selected following a screening based on grade-point average, class rank, courses pursued, scores on college entrance exams, school activities, employment record, letters of recommendations, and a student essay. Selected applicants were then interviewed individually. The Foundation's Board of Directors made the final selections.

The luncheon was sponsored by Fox Sports Net.

Scholarship recipients also revealed their post-secondary plans Saturday.

The scholarship recipients are:

• Karina Arreola from Abraham Lincoln High School. She is planning to attend the University of Colorado at Denver to study civil engineering and architecture.
• Michael Swartz, George Washington High School. He is heading for Berklee College of Music in Boston. He hopes one day to manage his own record label.
• Priscilla Ruiz, Montbello High School. She is heading to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix for medical school preparation.
• Georgina Salomon, Montbello High School. She will major in biology at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
• Sybenie Hernandez, North High School. Computer Science will be her major at the Colorado School of Mines.
• Mara Sandoval, North High School. She is planning to attend Ricks College in Idaho with plans of being an elementary school teacher.
• Jaala Hemingway, West High School. She is planning to attend the Colorado Christian University to study English.
• Nubia Madrid, West High School. She is bound for the University of Miami.
• Karen Koto, Denver School of the Arts. Oberlin College in Ohio is her destination, to study biology and arts.

The $1,000 scholarships are five times more than the amount when the DPSREA scholarship program began, in 1996.

"DPS is not perfect -- no public or private school is -- but it's pretty darn close," said Montbello High School senior Priscilla Ruiz.