A new opportunity for college scholarships and academic honors has been brought to campus by one of our own.
At all-school this past Friday, junior Sarita Guede Hallock announced that she had founded the OVS chapter of the California Scholarship Federation. CSF is an organization that offers merit-based membership into school chapters, which in turn provide direct scholarships, opportunities for service work, and, above all else, recognition for academic achievement.
Sarita got the idea from her mother, a teacher at Carpinteria High School. Her mother recommended CSF after seeing the positive benefits of her school’s chapter and how good it looks on college applications.
“It benefits all grades…and obviously, for people who don’t have a ga-jillion dollars, it offers opportunities to get scholarships,” Sarita said. “It’s also good to be in a society where you’re doing community service surrounded by people who are dedicated to doing well in school.”
The CSF was started 100 years ago in 1921 to recognize stellar California students, and that is still its mission today.
The program focuses on community service and academic achievement, with chapters spearheading community service projects while recognizing good grades.
The foundation grants scholarships to its top performers across all chapters, of which there are more than 1,000 members.
The criteria to join CSF is sheerly based on grades and courses, having set requirements for both strength of schedule and grades in those classes to gain admission. Points, of which a student must total ten to gain admission, are given out for each letter grade a student receives in a class each semester.
According to Sarita, different classes hold different values – for example receiving an A in a math class like AP Statistics carries a different value than an A in an elective like Film Studies.
The CSF offers honors that had previously been inaccessible to OVS students.
“Once granted membership you can receive honors on your diploma and use the honors available on your college applications,” Sarita explained.
On top of receiving honors, the community service feature of the program gives students opportunities to show excellence outside of the classroom.
“There is also an optional part to it where the members organize and participate in community service events,” Sarita said. “And obviously, we would since we as a school are already really big on that.”
CSF brings potential to OVS – potential to bring attention to the academic and community service excellence exemplified by OVS students, giving value to their accomplishments.
“We have plenty of students who achieve much in service and academic achievement, but we’ve had no good way, at least from an academic perspective, to categorize and quantify that,” OVS college counselor Fred Alvarez said. “CSF allows that to happen, and with that, it allows our students to show their best efforts in the college application process.”
It is clear the new CSF chapter will be an important asset for OVS students in the coming years, strengthening students’ college applications, encouraging academic excellence, and promoting community service work.
CSF will grant OVS students opportunities to seriously strengthen their applications. Some seniors feel left out as they missed the boat on CSF, not having the opportunity that current underclassmen now have.
“I wish CSF was around when I was an underclassman because I believe it would bolster my resume and better showcase my successes at OVS,” senior Brody Moller said.
Though he missed out on the opportunity, Moller made sure to stress the importance to current freshmen and sophomores.
“I highly encourage all upperclassmen to partake in CSF because,” he said. “With the declining importance of test scores, CSF can help distinguish you from other applicants.”