A crowd of more than 800 people witnessed the Allan Hancock College Foundation award more than $300,000 in scholarships to 235 students during its 44th annual awards banquet on May 23.
Scholarships of up to $10,000 each were awarded to both returning and transferring students by 134 donors from the community through the foundation’s scholarship program.
This year’s Marian Hancock Scholarship was awarded to Sara Bell Galindo of Santa Maria. It’s named for the late wife of Capt. G. Allan Hancock, for whom the college is named. The award represents the scholarship committee’s choice for most outstanding and deserving student of the academic year. When the scholarship was established, Marian asked that it go to a student who has demonstrated a commitment to his or her education and who has shown great promise and dedication.
A press release from the college said that Elizabeth Miller, the college’s interim superintendent/president, presented Galindo with the award. Miller said when presenting the award that in spite of every difficulty in Galindo’s life, “she found education to be her guiding light.”
Galindo has faced more adversity in her lifetime than most, the release said. She was homeless by age 17, but she still managed to graduate from high school and enroll at Allan Hancock.
Galindo is pursuing a degree in psychology in order to study the effects of abuse and the foster system on children, the release said.
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 6, 2013.
