Local students awarded health care scholarships

Local high school graduates, college students and health workers were honored with scholarship awards Thursday by the Menifee Valley Medical Center Auxiliary. Menifee 24/7 photo by Doug Spoon

Twenty-five students planning careers in the health care industry received scholarship awards Thursday from the Menifee Valley Medical Center Auxiliary.

The ceremony was held at the Medical Center, located on McCall Boulevard in Menifee. Funded by grants and donations, the Auxiliary has awarded 330 scholarships totalling $510,000 since 1992. Applicants are screened and interviewed to determine their commitment to the health care industry.

The group of honorees included Donica Loney (left), an alumna of Santa Rosa Academy who is graduating from Cal Baptist in three years. Donica received the Darlene Bullock Award, which honors a former Medical Center Foundation administrator.

Donica, a previous scholarship winner, will be returning to Cal Baptist for her graduate work and plans a career as a surgical physician assistant. She addressed the audience with a passionate speech about her goals.

Here is the list of scholarship winners honored on Thursday:

Teresa Ayers; Victoria Bosi; Nathan Brown; Presten Christensen; Katie Denny; Connie Duncan Moses; Kaleigh Dyer; Juliet Griffin; Maria Gurrola; Raul Gurrola.

Fiorze Hossainzada; Nathan Hughes; Chelsea Kennedy; Julianne Kulick; Donica Loney; Alexis Munoz; Laryssa Ortiz; Katie Pacheco.

Briany Padilla; Kathleen Phan; Leslie Pineda; Brianna Rios; Andrea Serrato; Jacob Torres; Kassidy Vogel.