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E-mail StoryDelano woman makes most of scholarships, works in community
| Saturday, Aug 4 2007 10:35 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, Aug 4 2007 10:39 PM
College aspirants of America, take heart: It is still possible to have your university education and your future paid for. But you have to be willing to work for it.
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Christine San Juan helps to coordinate Saturday's parade in Delano.
Christine San Juan will tell you.
This year, the 22-year-old from Delano graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting from Fresno State.
San Juan's schooling was paid for by a full scholarship from the university's Smittcamp Family Honors College.
College director Stephen Rodemeyer called her "an excellent student" and "really a special lady."
The year she started at Fresno State, she was one of 75 students chosen from about 550 applicants. The average grade-point average for those chosen was 3.9 to 4.0, he said.
"They paid for my tuition completely for all four years," a humble San Juan said. "They paid for my room."
The package included paid parking and the loan of an Apple laptop computer with an option to buy -- which she did at the end of her senior year for $100, she said.
Costs not covered by the Smittcamp scholarship were taken care of by two other scholarships worth $10,000 apiece, said San Juan.
"My parents didn't have to pay anything to send me to school," the Delano High School graduate said. "I don't have any student loans."
Don't get green with envy just yet -- there's more.
Before graduating from Fresno State, San Juan was offered a job by accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers to work in its tax division in San Jose.
But because Cal Poly San Luis Obispo offers a one-year master's program in accounting-taxation, San Juan's new employer gave her an opportunity: defer her work start date by a year to get her master's; PWC would lend her $20,000 for tuition and expenses, and forgive the loan after she completes three years of employment.
San Juan accepted the offer and this fall she will be on her way to earning her master's.
Extracurricular activities
Besides education -- younger brother Chad will be a nursing sophomore at Fresno State this fall -- San Juan's parents have instilled strong family and cultural values in their children.
Rodemeyer said one of the criteria for awarding a full scholarship to San Juan was that she give back to the school and community.
San Juan helped host, mentor and orient students at Fresno State, Rodemeyer said. But even before that, she proved her willingness to serve at Delano's Philippine Weekend celebration for several years.
This year, San Juan was chairwoman of the Philippine Weekend committee.
"It's a big responsibility," said Jay Tamsi, last year's chairman. "She just graduated and instead of going on vacation like college graduates who like to celebrate and go on a trip, she's been home planning Philippine Weekend ever since.
"The majority of the summers when she was in college she would come home and help out with Philippine Weekend," Tamsi said.
San Juan said her dad chaired the celebration in 1993.
"It's in my blood," she said.
Indeed, one of the reasons San Juan is happy about going back to school for another year before starting to work right away is "it allows me to do Philippine Weekend for another year," in 2008.