From LACC to Nashville, Tennessee
Marian Montano graduated from John Marshall High School in 2014 with hopes of transferring to a four-year university. Even with a GPA of 3.96 and a great SAT score, she did not receive acceptance into the four universities she applied to. She believes that it was a result of bad advice on filling out her applications and personal statements. After receiving the hard news, she turned her attention towards LACC. She applied to LACC’s President’s Scholars Program, an elite honors program, and was accepted. For the past year, she has been studying hard and working with counselors with the goal of transferring to a four-year school. Not only was she accepted to both Vanderbilt and Emory, but Vanderbilt awarded her significant financial aid. Next week Marian is flying to Nashville to start as a sophomore at Vanderbilt University.
Marian and her older brother grew up in Los Angeles. Her mother and father both emigrated from the Philippines, and today her mom is a nurse at the UCLA student clinic and her father is a security guard. Although Marian will spend most of her time studying life sciences at Vanderbilt, she will use some of her free time to take pictures with her new Canon Rebel T3i camera. Photography is a hobby that she shares with her father and an elective she hopes to take at Vanderbilt.
“Attending LACC helped me understand how to study more effectively, and has enabled me to achieve my academic dreams,” said Marian. “LACC was a very rewarding experience. I had wonderful professors and I was able to take the right classes to enable me to transfer to Vanderbilt in just one year. I am now about to attend a university more suited to my interests and a higher academic level than those I originally applied to my senior year of high school. I could not have done it without my professors and counselors at LACC and the LACC Foundation.”
We wish Marian the best as she continues her academic journey, and look forward to welcoming thirteen new scholars for the 2015-2016 academic year.
ABOUT LACC’S PRESIDENT’S SCHOLARS PROGRAM
The President’s Scholar Award provides outstanding graduating high school students full support for tuition, books, and supplies in order to graduate and/or transfer to a four-year college or university. In addition to the scholarship, each President’s Scholar receives a notebook tablet, campus orientation, free parking, free admission to cultural events, membership in the Ralph Bunche Honors program, and an invitation to an annual reception with the college president. All applicants for the President’s Scholar Award are entering freshman with a minimum grade point average of 3.75. The President’s Scholars Program was established by Emeritus Philip Schlessinger as a planned gift through his estate.
