Sally Hong
La Mesa Woman’s Club offers five deserving high school seniors within the Grossmont Union High School District an opportunity to receive a scholarship amount of $1,000 each. Over the past few decades, La Mesa Woman’s Club has been able to provide this scholarship to a generous number of upcoming college students and plans to continue serving its community in the future as well.
The deadline to submit applications is March 27. Applicants will be chosen from a pool of students based on their community service, types of courses taken, quality of essay, class ranking, extracurricular activities, SAT/ACT scores and future goals. Winners are chosen by three judges and their respective counselors. Students with various experience apply for this prestigious and special scholarship.
Marjoree Howard-Hartman, who has served the past 39 years as education enrichment and literacy chairwoman of the La Mesa Woman’s Club, is a passionate promoter of the scholarship. As a retired high school English teacher, she knows very well how hard students work to get into a good college. She also is aware of how expensive it can get to attend a four-year university. This is one of the reasons why she envisioned the scholarship program and made it available for students to utilize.
“We found that high school seniors in the Grossmont Union High School District needed financial help in order to attend college,” Howard-Hartman said. “We have been awarding scholarships for over 37 years.”
She believes that the students are well-deserving of the scholarship and is appreciative of the recipients who, in turn, write thank you letters and visit whenever they get the chance to express their gratitude. State Sen. Joel Anderson has recognized La Mesa Woman’s Club members for their dedication to serve the community through leadership, education, and volunteerism.
“The work that the La Mesa Woman’s Club does to give opportunities for our youth to succeed is inspiring,” Anderson said. “Organizations like the La Mesa Woman’s Club bring us together and make our community stronger.”
Founded in 1902 by Mary Ferguson, the La Mesa Woman’s Club has since expanded to provide civic, educational, health and charitable services in La Mesa and surrounding East County communities for 113 years. As the oldest social service organization in La Mesa, the club has actively worked on a wide range of projects and fundraisers.
For more information on how to apply for the scholarship, visit LaMesaWomansClub.org.
—Sally Hong is a student at UC San Diego and works as an intern in the office of state Sen. Joel Anderson, whose district includes La Mesa.
