Scholarship committee chair Bill Dougherty (left) and Rotary Club of Del Mar President Klaus Gubernator with Neela Agjahan, who was awarded a $2,000 scholarship to go towards tuition at UC Riverside
Recent Torrey Pines High School (TPHS) graduate Neela Aghajan joined us at the July 20, 2017 meeting. Neela was the runner-up for the Rotary Club of Del Mar Scholarship, and she wrote a very kind letter to the scholarship committee to thank them for their consideration. The scholarship committee chairman, Bill Dougherty, read excerpts from Neela’s letter and Neela herself thanked the club. She noted that while students are usually encouraged to say nice things about others, there are fewer opportunities for students to reflect on what they’ve done and the good that they themselves have done. Neela said that her application for the Rotary scholarship allowed her to think about all that she’s already done so far, and that the confidence that the scholarship committee showed in her abilities was additional inspiration for her to continue to excel in college. In recognition of her letter, the scholarship committee voted unanimously to award Neela a $2,000 scholarship for her college tuition.
Neela graduated from TPHS with a 3.9 grade point average and was active in the Speech and Debate Club as well as softball. She also received an honorable mention at the 2017 Rotary Model U.N. In the fall, Neela will enter University of California Riverside where she plans to major in pre-med and biomedical engineering.