COMMUNITY NEWS TEAM HITS INKJET-TONER JACKPOT.

The Kennedy High School baseball team won the nationwide Staples $25,000 Cartridge Chase competition by collecting the most used inkjet toner cartridges for recycling.

Staples offers $3 for every used toner cartridge collected.

``When we were doing the fundraiser, we thought, `$3 a cartridge is great,''' team coach Manny Alvarado said. ``We thought $4,000 or $5,000 would be good money. We never, ever thought we'd win $25,000, although it was always in the backs of our mind.''

The Kennedy team plans to use the money to help pay for a new scoreboard.

The annual contest is open to any type of school team, athletic or otherwise. To sign up, visit www.staplesrecyclefored.com.

The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce this month awarded $186,000 in scholarships to 125 local students as part of its ``Cash for College'' project.

The chamber chose the winners at random from those who attended a career convention and workshop held last fall.

Winners from the San Fernando Valley were: Steven Nguyen, Birmingham High; Jessica Barreto, Burbank High; Angie Celis and Jeanette Solis, Canoga Park High; Jennifer Gallardo, Chatsworth High; Roshanak Basharzad and Daniel Chae, Granada Hills Charter High; Sentia Marutian, Glendale High; Vanessa Alzamora, Jessica Arevalo and Diana Mendez, Kennedy High; Daisy Ramirez, Polytechnic High; Brenda Le Brane, Reseda High; Anai M. Chaidez, San Fernando High; Jhania Lantan, Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies; Angelica G. Gameros and Jiehong Xu, Sylmar High; Yaniv Ovadia, Taft High; Brenda Rodriguez, Van Nuys High; and Leo Alvarado, Verdugo Hills High.

Glendale High School student Natalie Granucci is attending the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine that began Saturday at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Students were chosen nationwide based on academic excellence, leadership potential and interest in a career in medicine.

Granucci and her fellow nominees will learn about public health, medical ethics, research and general practice at the 10-day event. The students will also visit medical facilities and clinics and engage in simulated problem-based learning and diagnoses.

Granucci will also travel to Europe this summer as a student ambassador with People to People International, a government-sponsored cultural exchange program.

Sixteen-year-old Dylan Gutierrez of Van Nuys has earned a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in London. He will leave for Europe in September, after first going to New York to participate in the summer program at the official school of the New York City Ballet.

A dancer since age 11, Gutierrez was the youngest of six males to place in the ``Youth America Grand Prix'' international ballet competition in New York in the spring. After seeing the performance, the royal school offered him the scholarship to join roughly 45 dancers at the upper school in London, few of whom are non-Britons.

``Dylan is quite a character at the studio,'' said his mother, Andrea Paris-Gutierrez, who is also one of his trainers. ``He is a big personality in the room, funny, passionate, temperamental and extremely talented. We will miss him very much when he leaves for London.''

Fifty-one high school and adult school students from the Los Angeles Unified School District were given $1,000 college scholarships from the Council of Mexican-American Administrators this month.

Recipients were chosen based on grade-point averages, extracurricular activities and community service, and skill and poise during the application process.

Seven of the students came from San Fernando Valley schools. They are: Jasmin Escobedo from Canoga Park High; Nicole Lantello from Granada Hills High; Ana Pineda from North Hollywood High; Felicia Paraz from the Pacoima Skills Center; Omar Rodriguez from Polytechnic High; and Iylene Patino and Marlene Patino from Verdugo Hills High.