Rotary Club of Memorial-Spring Branch Presents College Scholarship Awards
By Pramod Kulkarni
Last updated: June 07, 2009

HOUSTON: The motto of the Rotary Club is service above self. The Rotary Club of Memorial- Spring Branch exemplified the club motto with the presentation of scholarship awards to ten area high school graduates at their Friday, May 29 lunch meeting at the Racquet Club. President Andy (Ashok) Garg presided over the presentation ceremony.

One of the scholarships was presented in honor of Ashok’s son Vasant. The $2,000 Vasant Garg scholarship was awarded to Jackie Garcia, who graduated from Northbrook HIgh School, and plans to attend the pre-med program at Texas A&M University.

The second $2,000 scholarship, funded by Gopal Savjani and Bob Giezentanner, went to Jennifer Sabillon of Northbrook High School who plans to major in Fashion Design at the University of Houston. The Rotary Club, as a whole, contributed five $2,500 scholarships of $2,500 each through fundraising activities such as rafles. The scholarship recepients were Mayra Gonzalez, graduate of Northbrook High School, who will major in Communications Studies at Sam Houston State University, Jackie Negreros, graduate of Spring Woods High School, who will major in Studio Art at the University of Texas, Fabian Salazar, graduate of Spring Woods High School, who will study Kinesiology at the University of Houston, Danny Souraphath, graduate of Westchester Academy for International Studies, who will major in Engineering at the University of Texas, and Jennifer Trevino, graduate of Spring Woods High School, who will major in Communications at either St. Thomas University or the University of Houston.

Club member Andrew Durham contributed three $2,500 scholarships in honor of his mother, Zoie Durham, who was a nurse. The three recepients were Courtney Chiles, graduate of Stratford High School, who will study Nursing at the Houston Community College of Spring Branch, Sun Yung Lee, graduate of Stratford High School, who will study Nursing at the University of Houston, and Anna Pena, graduate of the Westchester Academy for International Studies, who will study Psychology at St. Mary’s University.

The students will be invited to the Rotary Club at a future event to report on their academic activities in college.

The guest speaker at the luncheon was Rob Corson of the Memorial Shooting Gallery, who talked about Personal and Family Safety.

In addition to Andy Garg, the Rotary Club of Memorial-Spring Branch Several businessmen of Indian origin, including Venu Rao and Jagdeep Ahluwalia. Jagdeep said he had been with the Rotary Club since his stays in Ranchi and Aurangabad in India. Consul General of India, Sanjiv Arora will be a guest speaker at an upcoming Friday luncheon.

The Rotary Club of Memorial- Spring Branch was chartered in 1953. Internationally, the Rotary Club is active in eradicating disease and improving health. For instance, the Rotary Club of Karachi participated recently in a walk against Polio.