DWSOC 2021 Scholarship Winners

The Democratic Women of South Orange County (DWSOC) is a charted club of the Democratic Party of Orange County and works to elect local Democrats to office.  DWSOC is committed to social and economic equality, environmental protection, affordable healthcare, a high quality public education and the promotion of a diverse culture.  DWSOC is also the largest Democratic Club in the OC with over 450 members.
 
One of the ways DWSOC seeks to promote lasting change in our community is by supporting, fostering and mentoring our young Democrats. We believe by encouraging and recognizing our local young Democrats, we are promoting and protecting Democratic ideals in our country and in the world – now and into the future.
 
2021 marks the 4th year that DWSOC has awarded graduating High School Senior Students from Dana Hills High School, San Clemente High School and San Juan Hills High School with their annual scholarships. Students competed for up to $1,000 in awards from the DWSOC.  We remain committed to supporting our local graduating seniors at these three top public high schools in our communities.

​We are pleased to announce the following seven (7) DWSOC 2021 Scholarship Award Winners:
Dana Hills High School
Sophia Ruddins
Remy Charles
San Clemente High School
Maxine Davey
Fatima Muniz
Megan Moe
San Juan Hills High School
Max Katz
Ella Villar
At a time when other local political groups backed out of their senior student scholarship programs, DWSOC remained committed to our local graduating high school Democrats in 2021.  Our Orange County Award winning “Outstanding Club of the Year” again had tremendous financial support for our 2021 Scholarship Program from its Executive Board, many dedicated members and exceptional donors from within our community.
 
Graduates from Dana Hills, San Clemente and San Juan Hills High Schools said farewell this month to a tumultuous school year 2020-2021 beginning with a once in a century world-wide pandemic. From the essays, questions and recommendations received by our award winners, we could see that this past year had a profound effect on these students with the additional events that occurred this past year on our shores. The Class of 2021 was directly exposed to racial inequities, questions of policing, the importance of voting and the threats to democracy from within the United States.
 
Our 2021 Award Winners had much in common as they all worked towards something bigger than themselves. So many provided us examples of working collectively for the common good and, therefore having a positive impact on the world around them.  Each of our award winners are intelligent, kind and strongly principled, and have revealed to our community the high level of character they possess. For these seniors, the year 2021 was unlike any other.  The challenges our 2021 Award Class has endured are historic.  We commend them for their ability to adapt to this unique journey and overcome it all with compassion for others.
 
Extraordinary essays on what democracy means to them and what changes they would like to see in the world were thoughtfully written by our 2021 Scholarship Award Winners on the important issues of:   social injustices and LGBTQ civil rights, health policy and income inequality, the attack to our democracy from the January 6 insurrection, voter suppression, local racial challenges in our community, the effects of racism on our national dialogue, the effect of Citizens United on the country,  and the dire need for Campaign Reform.
 
“Our Scholarship Award Winners for 2021 surpassed our expectations of what we envisioned for this scholarship during the most challenging of circumstances over the past year and a half with the world pandemic.  Their activism in defense of democracy through recognition of their journalistic talents and internships for our candidates has contributed greatly to positive changes in our community” said Kim Anderson, President, DWSOC. 
 
 Our 2021 Scholarship Award Winners were again among the top students of their graduating class.  They are Valedictorians, AP Scholars, National Honor Society members, Top Senior of the Year Finalists, Students of the Year and have earned designations as California Scholarship Federation Gold Seal and Bi-literacy Seal Bearers.  Among our Scholarship recipients are students who were School Newspaper Editors, started clubs such as the Diversity, Inclusion & Racial Healing Club, led their High School Young Dems Clubs, leaders in their high school’s Robotics and Technology groups, and participated in state wide organizations such as the California Youth Climate Strike Group and One Up Action LA.  Five of the seven of our 2021 Award Winners were Interns for Local, State and Congressional candidates and made a huge impact on each of the races for which they volunteered.
 
These 2021 Scholarship Award Winners will be attending some of the top University of California schools as well as a number of top schools throughout the country – Berkeley, Stanford, USC, Pomona College, the University of California at San Diego and Santa Cruz, and George Washington University in Washington DC.  They have set high career goals for themselves to become Attorneys in the area of Civil Rights, National Advocates for the Latino Community, as well as International Leaders in Environmental, Energy and Natural Resource policy.
 
We congratulate these amazing young Democrats, applaud them for their many accomplishments, and wish them well as they carry on their extraordinary work in the next phase of their education and careers.
 
DWSOC was honored to present our seven (7) Scholarships via the school’s Senior Awards Program event that took place on the evenings of May 19 and May 20, 2021 at each respective high school in a limited outdoor venue due to pandemic restrictions.