Menifee resident wins $50,000 in Dr. Pepper contest

 Menifee resident Carlo Berjamin speaks during his submission video. (Photo courtesy drpepper.com)

By Doug Spoon, Editor

A Menifee college student with lofty ambitions won $50,000 in scholarship money Saturday in Dr. Pepper’s Tuition Giveaway contest.

Menifee residents were able to watch UCLA student Carlo Berjamin on TV as he was shown on a big screen during halftime of the Big Ten Conference championship football game, won by Ohio State over Northwestern. The format of the annual contest calls for two finalists to throw footballs into a giant Dr. Pepper can to see who wins the scholarship money. This year because of COVID-19 restrictions, the six regional finals were held virtually, with the students watching as former football standouts competed in their place.

Berjamin and Baylor University student Batool Unar Syed were shown on a video screen in the background as former college quarterbacks and television commentators Matt Leinart (for Berjamin) and Brady Quinn (for Syed) competed for them. The quarterbacks made an equal number of throws into the target holes for a tie, and each student was awarded a $50,000 scholarship.

Berjamin attended Paloma Valley High School and Mt. San Jacinto College before transferring to UCLA this fall as a mechanical engineering major. In his one-minute submission video for the contest, Carlo demonstrated the prototype for a prosthetic hand he made on a 3D printer. The video also showed a custom prosthetic hand he sent to a girl in Canada who is now using it.

“My ultimate goal is to create better lives for those who have either lost or have missing limbs,” Berjamin said in the video.

Berjamin told Menifee 24/7 “It was really awesome getting the call that I was a finalist. I didn’t think it was real, to be honest. But I’m so grateful for it!”

Other projects Berjamin has complete include an electric skateboard, a guitar pedal, and a solar-powered mini-car. You can view his audition for the Dr. Pepper Tuition Giveaway here.