Meredith Lehmann, a La Jolla High?School senior, has been awarded a $5,000 scholarship from the Don Diego Scholarship Foundation. Lehmann, 16, will attend Stanford University in the fall, where she plans to major in physics or classics. The Don Diego Scholarship is a prestigious award given only to high school seniors who have participated at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Meredith received the Exhibitor Scholarship after entering two horse sculptures in the Student Showcase. “The joy and the wonder of the success of my first exhibition at the San Diego County Fair was more than enough to motivate me to work as diligently as I could to shape another and different sculpture for the following year’s competition,” she said in a statement. “Both horses have been displayed on my piano ever since.” Lehmann, who was a finalist at the Intel Science Talent Search earlier this year, counts both science and art in her repertoir of talents. She enjoys singing and plays the cello in the San Diego Youth Symphony and is the first chair in Bishops Community Orchestra and assistant first chair in the greater San Diego Community Orchestra. Lehmann is involved outside of her upper level academic classes and arts, interning more than 20 hours a week for bioinformatics at the J. Craig Venter Institute. She has also volunteered for the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair, Student Advisory Council and at the Joan B. Kroc Peace Institute for Peace and Justice. Lehmann will be recognized at the Don Diego Scholarship Foundation’s annual gala at the Del Mar Fairgrounds’ Turf Club on June 28. The event is open to the public and tickets and table sponsorship can be purchased at www.dondiegofund.org or by calling (858) 792-4210. The evening will commence with a cocktail hour and silent auction, including a wine tasting with Alysha Stehly of Vesper Vineyards, a 2003 scholarship recipient. Guests will also be able to meet the scholars prior to dinner and a concert by Creedence Clearwater Revisted. The Don Diego Fund, named for Tom Hernandez, who served as the Fair’s goodwill ambassador from 1947-1984, has awarded more than $575,000 in college scholarships and grants for agricultural education since 1985. The scholarship supports those students who are ambassadors for the county, academically and through their achievements. Funds are raised through the annual gala, the Amigo club and donations. For more information or to make a donation, visit www.dondiegofund.org.
