SCHOLARSHIPS TO BE AWARDED 15 LOCAL STUDENTS WIN GRANTS HOSPITAL, AUXILIARY SPONSOR AWARDS FOR HIGH SCHOOL PUPILS WHO AIM FOR HEALTH CARE CAREERS.

Byline: Daily News

LANCASTER -- The Antelope Valley Hospital Auxiliary and Antelope Valley Hospital will award $15,000 in scholarships to 15 local high school students pursuing health care careers.

The recipients were announced at the Junior Volunteer Awards and Recognition Banquet on May 10.

The scholarships will be officially presented in conjunction with awards nights at the recipients' high schools.

The 15 teens were selected to receive $1,000 each.

They were chosen from among hundreds of applicants based on panel interviews and scholastic achievement.

To qualify, applicants were required to have a 3.5 grade-point average or higher, and have plans to pursue a career in a health-related field.

The scholarship program is a partnership between the hospital, which contributed $5,000, and the auxiliary, which contributed $10,000. Recipients were chosen by a scholarship committee headed by Auxiliary Chairman Bobbie Patton.

AVH CEO Les Wong noted that the scholarship program is worthwhile because Antelope Valley is in need of qualified health care professionals.

``We wish these talented young students all the best in their health care careers and hope that they will remain in or return to this area when their training is complete,'' he said.

The 2006 scholarship recipients and the colleges they plan to attend are: Erendira Aldana of Mojave High School, California State University, Long Beach; Rohit Choudhary of Quartz Hill High, USC; Jason Dunkel of Quartz Hill High, Stanford University; Dustin Hang of Quartz Hill High; University of California at Berkeley; Pinky Kurani of Quartz Hill High School, Drexel University; Anthony Lim of Lancaster High School, UC Berkeley; Samantha Liu of Lancaster High, California State University, Northridge; Stacie Lomibao of Highland High School, California State University, Fullerton; Kristianne Meisels of Paraclete High School, University of California, Santa Barbara; Anish Parmar of Mojave High, University of California, Irvine; Neal Patel of Quartz Hill High, Colgate University; Jelisa Roberts of Palmdale High School, University of San Diego; Prapti Singh of Quartz Hill High, UC Berkeley; Abhya Singla of Quartz Hill High, UCLA; Rajat Suri of Quartz Hill High, UC Berkeley.

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Antelope Valley Hospital and auxiliary scholarship recipients, from left, are Rajat Suri, Dustin Hang, Rohit Choudhary, Anthony Lim, Stacie Lomibao, Abhya Singla, scholarship chairwoman Bobbie Patton, Samantha Liu, Jason Dunkel, Neal Patel, Anish Parmar, Erendira Aldana, Kristianne Meisels and Jelisa Roberts. Not shown are Pinky Kurani and Prapti Singh.