2008 Woodie Awards
Deserving Students on the Money
Elizeda Beltran
Issue date: 5/21/08 Section: News
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"This is a great afternoon and a great event and we are so pleased to see all of you, both our donors and scholarship recipients," said Valley President Tyree Wieder during her opening speech. "This is one of the best days of the year for the campus. My other favorite, of course, is commencement."
Don Guathier, Academic Senate president, addressed the honorees in slightly different language.
"There's a famous ketchup company that's working on perfecting a tomato, and in some ways that's what we're doing here, we're perfecting all you tomatoes," he said, "so that you can go out into the world and really be the best."
The event, sponsored by the Associated Student Union, Student Services and the LAVC Foundation, attracted approximately 300 hundred people. The Foundation awarded 106 scholarships, adding up to $130,000, an increase from $110,000 in 2007.
Before the awards were handed out, the audience was introduced to the vocal ranges of Patricio Castillo, who won a Showcase award for his vocal performances. The Showcase award recognizes student achievement in the performing and visual arts.
Other Showcase award recipients were Atticus McKittrick for instrumental music, and Alyssa Carter and Emily Lehrer for theater arts.
As students lined up after the performances to receive their scholarships, it was evident that Eboni Haynes, an African American studies and political science major, was the big winner of the night, taking home five awards.
"It feels wonderful, that's the only thing I can say at this point, and I'm tired," she said as she waited in line at the end of the program to collect her scholarships. "This just really …gives me a nice send off to my next step."
Her next step is either UCLA or UC Berkeley, but first she will use half of the money to "pay [her] credit cards, and the other half [she will] put in the bank, nothing too crazy."
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