“Investing in students who will advance the energy industry is important to both Silicon Valley Power and the Santa Clara community,” says Larry Owens, manager of customer services for Silicon Valley Power. One way Silicon Valley Power has invested in the community is by awarding five Santa Clara students scholarship money from the Silicon Valley Power Scholarship Award Program.
Students selected for this honor had to meet a number of requirements, such as showing their intention to be involved in the power or energy industry someday. The recipients of three $5,000 scholarships are Kristin Oswald, an incoming student at University of California, Davis, Kawal Preet, a student at Santa Clara University, and Lincoln Tran, an incoming student at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. The recipients of $2,000 in grants for technical schools are Christopher Blancett, a student at Institute for Business and Technology, and Brian Shields, also a student at IBT.
“I was very happy and excited to get the $2,000 for a program that costs about $12,500; so the $2,000 goes a long way,” says Blancett, who is finishing up a certificate program to become an electrician. “I would like to work for Silicon Valley Power or a solar company someday.”
“I was definitely very happy to win the scholarship, and the $5,000 will help go a long way in college,” says Tran, who plans to study civil engineering. “In the future, I’d like to do something with power plans and electrical engineering. I want to improve our power grid, which is the source of our energy and how it’s distributed. I think we could integrate solar panels, green energy, and wind power into our power grid.”
Contact Voula Margelos Brown at 408-261-5036 for details on applying to next year’s scholarship program.