Temecula Resident Awarded Prestigious Scholarship

A Temecula woman was among three Mt. San Jacinto College students selected from a pool of nearly 800 nominees nationwide to receive a prestigious scholarship, it was announced.

Temecula resident Shayla Esarey, Samuel Fall of Banning, and Amy Bartel of San Jacinto—all honors students at MSJC—were recently named 2013 recipients of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, according to the foundation.

Esarey, Fall and Bartel are current or former officers of Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for community colleges, stated Karin Marriott, spokeswoman for MSJC, in a news release.

The MSJC trio are among 73 scholars selected this year to receive the award, according to the news release. They will each receive up to $30,000 a year for up to three years. The scholarship is intended to cover a significant share of the student’s educational expense—including tuition, living expenses, books and required fees—for the final two to three years necessary to achieve a bachelor’s degree.

Awards vary by individual, based on the cost of tuition as well as other grants or scholarships he or she may receive, the foundation states.

MSJC Superintendent and President Dr. Roger Schultz surprised the students with the news on April 10 while they were meeting with their advisers.

“This rare triple crown win for our students is yet further evidence of the quality of Mt. San Jacinto College’s instruction, our faculty and programs, and of course our students,” Schultz said. “We are very proud of Amy, Sam and Shayla.”

Esarey plans on majoring in political science with minors in history and psychology. She hopes to attend University of California, Berkeley or Cornell University.

Bartel plans on majoring in anthropology and archaeology. She hopes to transfer to University of California, Berkeley.

Fall plans on becoming a nanoscale engineer specializing in micro electromechanical systems—MEMS—and hopes to transfer to Stanford.