GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL -- Educationally Speaking

If you think that our local schools are going to “hell in a hand

basket,” you better have a talk with some of the top universities in the

nation.

As our high school seniors get their college acceptance letters, it is

exciting to see the top universities in the nation represented. Local

students have already received acceptance to Stanford University, Brown

University, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Claremont McKenna, and many of the

University of California campuses. The next two weeks will bring news to

more students that they have been accepted to their dream school.

You know that colleges give athletic scholarships to local students,

due to the fact that so many of them are recruited by top teams

throughout the nation. Those are heavily reported, sending parents with

potential stars on a never-ending quest for personal coaches and the best

traveling teams.

But of course, scholarships are also offered for academic reasons. Did

you know that many local kids have been offered Regents Scholarships from

University of California campuses, which will cover all or part of their

college costs? Private colleges have offered academic tuition

scholarships. Instead of playing on an athletic team, these scholarships

require a student to maintain full-time enrollment and good grades. Could

a parent ask for a better incentive plan?

So, if your child is in second or third grade, what should you do to

ensure your child has a place in a top-notch university on someone else’s

dime? Well, you could get them to specialize in one sport to the

exclusion of every other activity in their lives. You could spend money

on special equipment, coaches, and teams. You could spend most of your

own free time supervising this pursuit. But, what happens if your child

suffers an injury senior year that prevents he or she from playing that

sport? What school is going to offer an athletic scholarship then?

A second option is to make your children love learning. Read to them

every night. Find out what is going on at school and make sure

assignments are being kept up. Get them involved in a variety of

activities, so they can find out what kinds of things they like. Help

them choose a rigorous curriculum in seventh grade, so that they will be

well positioned to take the right classes in high school.

Get your students involved in volunteering. Take extracurricular

interests to a higher level. Encourage them to sign up for the school

Debate Team.

Then, when your child is in 12th grade, wait for the mail each day.

These students and their scholarships don’t get in the newspaper. They

don’t get the glory. But after all of the hard work, victory is theirs.

As Stanford University says to their admitees, “For all the times you

stayed up late to get it right; took an AP class when you knew it meant

more work; practiced, rehearsed, and gave it your all; said what you

thought instead of what was popular; volunteered your time instead of

just hanging out, we applaud you.”

Congratulations to all of you seniors who are getting academic

scholarships. Congratulations to our excellent teachers, counselors, and

schools who are making it possible for our students to receive such

gifts.

* GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs

Tuesdays. She can be reached by e-mail at GGSesq@aol.com.