Past Winners
We are so pleased to announce our inaugural winners of the Lisa Cosenza Memorial Scholarship! Every single applicant impressed our committee, so all of them should be very proud of their respective accomplishments. Because of the generosity of our donors, we were able to give out four extra awards and $2,500 more in our first year! Congratulations to the six 2018 winners!
2019 AWARDEES
My name is Bella Sullins and I will be attending Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California! I will be majoring in Environmental Science and minoring in Theology. My goal is to change the world by sustaining the environment and to find solutions to end plastic pollution in the ocean. While pursuing this career, I also want to spread God’s love by becoming a worship leader for kids at summer camps and Sunday services. This is why I am so blessed for the opportunity to go to Point Loma! My college offers a wide range of community service opportunities that changes lives and fulfills hearts. A few clubs I am going to be a part of are the Homeless ministries, Worship teams, and the Loveworks program. The Loveworks progam enables students to serve in different areas of the world that have personally asked for help. Upon serving, students in this program will spend time with the kids, give out clean water, and give a spiritual message to encourage and support those who need help. I am beyond thankful for this scholarship and honored to have been picked as one of the winners. Thank you Cosenza family for supporting and believing in me!
I am honored to be one of the recipients of the Lisa Cosenza Memorial Scholarship. This award is special to me because I relate with how Lisa put a high priority on education.
At Dana Hills High School, I really put an effort into learning all I could about a myriad of subjects, such as Physics, Calculus, Biology, English, and Chemistry. I also dedicated four years to being an active participant in our school’s student body (ASU) where I learned valuable lessons about leadership, inclusion, and kindness. I was able to serve as Junior Class Secretary / Treasurer and the Commissioner of Records. I’m proud to have led the initiative and to earn Dana Hills its first ever National Gold Council of Excellence Award. My favorite things about being involved in ASU are meeting new people and getting the chance to reach out to other students in hope of creating a more inclusive school environment.
To me, education isn’t only about learning new concepts, but it’s the experience of learning and collaborating with your teachers and fellow students that brings an exponential benefit to all involved. And, in my opinion, the most significant goal of an education is to be able to use it to help others.
This focus of utilizing my education to benefit others will be a leading motivator at Boston College as an undeclared major as I combine my interests in pre-med, physics, and business.
My hope is that I can continue the legacy Lisa has had on her community through education as I try to do the same with mine.
My name is Rachel Reeves and I am honored to be a recipient of the Lisa Cosenza Scholarship. I have decided to continue my studies at Cornell University where I will be majoring in Human Biology, Health, and Society. I plan to complete pre-med requirements while at Cornell and hope to attend medical school. I am so grateful to the Lisa Cosenza Scholarship for helping me reach my goals and I am so excited for my coming journey!
In the fall I am fortunate enough to be attending San Diego State University as part of their Social Science Teaching Credential Program. After graduating with my teaching credentials I plan on continuing my education and receiving my Master’s degree, before settling down to teach high school history and psychology.Through the multitude of amazing teachers I came to depend on and appreciate in my high school career, I realized the role of a teacher is not only to teach a lesson plan but to provide mentorship and support to teens through the grueling hardships of high school and adolescence. The idea that my lifelong career will be providing young adults with the tools needed to be successful later in life fills me with pride and happiness. I want to strive to be an adult figure my future students can trust and learn lessons from that will be applicable to life during and after high school. An appreciative understanding of history burns within me; I want to be the spark that inspires my future students to discover their own historical connection from the pages of a textbook and grow from the history that shapes them. If the ripples of one decision made hundreds of years ago in history can still be seen in today’s reflection, the possibilities for me to achieve the same are limitless.
Looking forward after high school, I plan on furthering my educational and athletic endeavors at Georgetown University playing D1 soccer. Currently, I am enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences as a political science major with an emphasis in law. While attending Georgetown, I intend on maximizing every opportunity possible and utilizing everything Washington DC has to offer. Coming from a background heavily influenced by the special needs community, I aspire to work in making positive change in public policies that can help greater influence the lives of the special needs community. I hope to better the quality of life of each person of the special needs community by encouraging more opportunities for independence as well as access to beneficial resources. In this way, I can give back to people who have greatly impacted my life, such as my cousin Emma Mae, who has never failed to bring a light to every room and a smile to every face.
I feel and am very blessed to have been given a scholarship from the Lisa Cosenza Fund. I plan on attending the University of Oklahoma in the fall and majoring in psychology. Afterwards, I hope to go to graduate school with an emphasis in developmental psychology and help children with special needs. Having a sibling with autism makes our relationship nowhere near perfect, but seeing him change over the years is almost awe-inspiring. My brother is one of my biggest inspirations for what I want to do because watching him grow and strengthen shows how God works beautifully within our lives. Throughout high school, I enjoyed my time making many friends in Best Buddies as well as being part of the girls tennis team for four years. I also did an internship at a Consulting firm. The past four years also showed me my love for working with children. What I am most proud of as well as my favorite part of my high school career is being a kids ministry leader at my church, South Coast Christian Church, every Sunday morning. I look forward to what the future holds!
My name is Erin Young, and I have recently graduated from Dana Hills High School. I am really excited to be able to continue both my academic and athletic career at the University of Illinois this fall! I will be part of the division 1 dive team at University of Illinois and I plan on studying Speech Pathology. I have always enjoyed helping kids and teaching them new things, and through some of my recent volunteering at Malcom Elementary School, I have found that Speech Pathology allows me to help kids enhance their communication skills. I am super excited for the future, and I am honored to have been picked to be a recipient of the Lisa Cosenza Scholarship.
A passion of mine has been sports since the day I could understand how they worked. I can vividly remember the daily routine of watching my brother playing sports video games while simultaneously broadcasting play-by-play and recording statistics of the players that he was controlling. Enamored by the exactitude of statistics and their underlying truth, I soon realized that a passion of mine was analyzing data, specifically sports data. As I looked into a possible career choices, I found that a data analyst for a sports organization would be a perfect combination between my love for sports and numbers. By studying statistics, I hope to grow in my knowledge of statistical algorithms. In addition, I feel as though I would be able to seize opportunities working for my favorite sports teams, the Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota Vikings.
Next year I will be attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to study nutrition. I am very appreciative for this scholarship. It is helping me achieve my dream of going to school so I can eventually open up my own nutritional practice and help people live their healthiest lives.
2018 Awardees
Lexi Montgomery — $3,000, attending Biola University
“I aspire to major in psychology and gain my Ph.D. in counseling so that I may become a marriage and family therapist. I believe God has blessed me with the gift of discernment and that I could truly help people through the counseling field. I have always had such a heart for people and such a desire to help others, that this seems like the perfect career. I plan on finishing my schooling before I’m thirty, but I also have no rush if I end up getting married and become a stay at home mom. Family is of the utmost importance to me and that is why I would go into marriage and family therapy. My family life has been far from perfect and my parents got divorced when I was transitioning into middle school, so to be able to help anyone going through that same thing in any way would be truly humbling.”
Dana Mackensen — $2,000, attending University of California at Irvine
Dana Elise Mackensen was born in Newport Beach, California and has lived in Laguna Niguel her entire life with her parents and two older brothers.
A Dana Hills High School alum (Class of 2018), Dana graduated with Academic Distinction, earned the Seal of Biliteracy, and received a Medallion Award in Spanish 4 (out of 250 students). She was a four-year starter, Scholar Athlete, and Captain of the Varsity Tennis Team, achieving All-County honors three years. Dana’s high school career culminated in a 5th Place finish (out of 586 schools) in the CIF Southern Section 2017 Girls Individual Tennis Championships – Doubles competition.
Dana has worked in childcare and tennis instruction since the age of 10.Her earnings enabled her to buy her own car when she turned 16. Dana is most proud of her volunteer work with the Rancho Santa Marta Fellowship Builders, spending three of her Christmas breaks at their orphanage in Baja California. She worked on construction and demolition projects while improving her Spanish fluency and spending quality time with the girls and boys.
Dana is proud and excited to be attending the University of California at Irvine this Fall, majoring in Psychology (with a minor in Spanish) and joining the Women’s Tennis Team as a preferred walk-on for the NCAA Division-I program.
Dana plans to pursue a career in either child psychology or speech therapy. Helping young people is her passion!
Averee Dovsek — $2,000, attending Hofstra University
“My name is Averee Dovsek and I will be attending Hofstra University in New York this upcoming fall! I will be part of their NCAA division I golf team! As of now, I’m going to study Television and business- meaning I will be working in the communications and business school! I am super excited to advance to the next chapter of my life with the help of the Lisa Cosenza Scholarship!”
Thomas Bhardwaj — $500, attending University of Southern California
“I am honored to have been picked as a recipient of the Lisa Cosenza Scholarship. I have committed to the University of Southern California and plan to get a BS in Business Administration. Additionally, I plan to engage in research with professors at USC regarding finding ways to make the process of developing and producing technology more economical. I also hope to spend a semester studying abroad at Franklin University Switzerland during my time at USC.”
Katherine Nollar — $500, attending California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo
Throughout middle school, Katherine enjoyed membership in the National Junior Honor Society and continued her involvement with her high school’s National Honor Society (NHS). She took advantage of multiple service opportunities and have devoted several hours in the community. At Serra’s Pantry Outreach, she helped to distribute food, as well as volunteering at the Holiday Homework project at the Boys and Girls Club in San Juan Capistrano. At this event, she helped children shop for Christmas presents for their family.
Katherine is attending California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo this fall. She plans on majoring in Liberal Studies to become and elementary school teacher.
Madison Bellah — $500, attending California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo
“As of right now, I am debating between two career paths: journalism and law. My dream as a journalist is to report on political and governmental issues that demand the public’s attention. I believe that the media is truly the fourth branch of government, as it relays vital information about the state of the nation to the public. In today’s society, many journalists write with heavily impacted bias or purpose, and my intention is to limit that by reporting the hard facts. Idealistically, I would love to work for an established paper like the New York Times. Working in the scope of law, I would love to serve as a human rights/humanitarian lawyer. As a lawyer I would hope to promote human dignity and rights nationally and internationally. The idea of this career already fills me with a sense of accomplishment and pride in knowing that I will be directly bettering the lives of countless people. My idealistic jobs as a lawyer would include working with for the United Nations as a Human Rights Officer or for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).”