DWSOC 2022 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.
 
2022 marks the 5th year that DWSOC has awarded graduating High School Senior Students from 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 six (6) DWSOC 2022 Scholarship Award Winners:
San Clemente High School
SCHS Senior Awards night with our four winners and Presenter Susan Goggins.  ​Left to right:  Brooklyn Staab, Psi Padhya, Presenter Susan Goggins, Madeline McDonald, Reaghan Mulligan
San Juan Hills High School
SJHHS Senior Awards night with our two winners with our Committee Presenter Molly Kempson.  Left to right: Sandhya Ganeson, Mai-Ly Wilkinson, Presenter Molly Kempson
June 13, 2022
​General Meeting & Annual Scholarship Presentation
Picture
From Left to Right, Standing:      Kim Anderson, DWSOC President
                                                                Margie Black, Scholarship Co-Chair
                                                                Reaghan Mulligan, SCHS Awardee
                                                                Susan Goggins, Scholarships Member
                                                                Psi Padhya, SCHS Awardee
                                                                Molly Kempson, Scholarships Member
                                                                Susanne Dachgruber, Scholarships Member
                                                                Trudy Podobas, Scholarship Co-Chair
                                                               
From Left to Right, Kneeling;       Madeline McDonald, SCHS Awardee
                                                                Brooklyn Staab, SCHS Awardee
                                                                Mai-Ly Wilkinson, SJHHS Awardee

​SJHHS Awardee, Sandhya Ganesan is not pictured as she was not in attendance at the June 13 Meeting.  Here is a video from Sandhya introducing herself and thanking DWSOC for their Scholarship:
At the June 13, 2022 meeting, the Awardees were presented with their Scholarship Award Checks and Certificates.  Additionally, each Awardee was gifted Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman’s poetry book “The Hill We Climb” – that poem was presented at the January 2021 Inauguration of President Joe Biden.
This was the 5th Year of our Scholarship Program and we thank you, the DWSOC Membership, for your continuous support of our Program.  We awarded six (6) Scholarships this year at both SCHS and SJHHS at the May 19 Senior Awards Nights Ceremony held at each High School.  The photos of each are on the screen behind me!

Susan Goggins represented DWSOC at SCHS and awarded Scholarships to:
Madeline McDonald
Reaghan Mulligan
Psi Padhya
Brooklyn Staab

Molly Kempson represented DWSOC at SJJHS an awarded Scholarships to:
Sandhya Ganesan
Mai-Ly Wilkinson

All of the Awardees shown are here tonight and we will introduce them shortly. The only exception is SJHHS’s Sandhya Ganesan who could not be here but you’ll meet her via video at the end of our presentation.

The awarding of DWSOC Scholarships this year was again made possible by the generous donations of Friends of DWSOC and members.  We thank the following individuals for their continuing support:

Ruth Clark
Fran Sdao
Kim Anderson
Linda Verraster
Susan Goggins
Colleen Conley
Christine Widaman
Linda McLaughlin
Yvonne Ybarra
Renee Neighbours
Sherine Smith

Heartfelt thanks to our 2022 Scholarship Committee members (with special recognition to our newest member Molly Kempson) who revised our Application with three (3) new Essay topics to coincide with our club’s 2022 Fundraising Theme Defending Our Democracy:
1. Democracy now post January 6 is under attack – what can we do to defend it?
2. As envisioned by the late Civil Rights Leader John Lewis, what are you doing to make your community more Right, Fair and Just?
3. Discuss one issue that is hindering Democratic Ideals and how should leaders work to solve the problem?

Our Committee was unanimous in the rubric scoring of our Awardees and were very impressed with how all of our Awardees wrote their Essays.  For the first timein five years, one of our Awardees received almost perfect five’s in scoring!

Our Awardees all took Honors, Advanced Placement and International Baacalaureat Classes at their High Schools.  They were inducted into the National Honors Society and the California Scholarship Federation.

The issues of our time drew our Awardees into leading other students in the CUSD Cultural Proficiency Task Force, the Students Against Racism, LGBTQ+ Rights Advocacy and the BRIDGES program, a task force affiliated with OC Human Relations – all dedicated to building a collaborative, communicative, inclusive and driven team of advocates at their respective High Schools.

One of our Awardees lead a Journalism series of articles on race, gender and social equality that drew attacks from a group of angry, anti-mask parents and organized by one of the CUSD Trustees.  The bullying and harassment of these students and CUSD in their efforts to promote freedom of speech actually caused one of the CUSD Trustees (representing SJC) and just elected in 2020 to resign!  YES, elections matter and what matters most are the local elections of School Board Members!

Our Awardees volunteering in their school’s Freshman Mentoring Program, Tutored Elementary and Middle School students, and in organizations such as Girls, Inc., the HER Drive and Kathy’s House for Women.  Of course, our Awardees also lead their High School Democratic Clubs and volunteered for local candidate campaigns.

We required that each student have a Recommendation Survey and/or Letter submitted on their behalf from a teacher/mentor/coach.  Recommenders this year were top High School Journalism, English, AVID and AP US Government Teachers.

Our Awardees future field of studies include:  Journalism, Chemistry/Biology, Political Science, Computer Engineering, Environmental Studies, English and Foreign Languages.

Our Awardees future plans are in Public Service, Law, Medicine, Business, Environmental Engineering – all in goals of policy reforms in each of their areas of interest.

Our Awardees will attend schools such as Berkely, Princeton, UCI, Fordham, the University of San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz and Pace University.  We wish them all the very best and can’t wait to see the Places They Will Go.

We have asked each of them in personalized award letters to assist DWSOC in helping get out the Youth Vote this November.  Several of our Awardees are already accomplished Video and Film artists and they can help us in Social Media to get our Youth to Vote this November.  We will NOT succeed in November if the voter turnout is only 19% as it was in last weeks June California Primary!!