Inspiring student leaders to develop spiritually, morally and socially is the primary goal of Global Leadership Connection (GLC), a youth leadership nonprofit with scholarship opportunities for high school juniors in the Santa Barbara area.
Each year GLC brings together outstanding students from multiple high schools to recognize and applaud their leadership.
During their junior year, students are nominated by their schools or community based on their leadership qualities, they complete an application with essay, receive a personal interview and partake in two days of interactive seminars with Carole Harder, founder/executive director.
“One of our main goals during the seminar days is for each student to at least meet and shake hands with every other student in the room,” Harder said. “We believe in these young people and it is wonderful to see how they believe in each other as well.”
This year, 19 scholarships were awarded to students during the GLC Scholarship and Awards Program held at Westmont College.
Ten $100 Ambassador Scholarships were awarded to: Alejandra Quepons of Cabrillo High School, Mehar Raininghani and Kai Paterson of Dos Pueblos High School; Robert Wilcox of Dunn School; Carter Plowman of Laguna Blanca School; Judy Lynn Ruiz of Lompoc High School; Alejandro Alarcon, Reese Large and Bethany King of San Marcos High School; and Rylan Agin of Santa Ynez Valley High School.
Scholarships for $500 were awarded to Rayna Dinio and Zayn Bustamante of Cabrillo High School; Jonathan Yang of Dos Pueblos High School; and Olivia Arevalo of Santa Barbara High School.
The $775 Trailhead Scholarship for Westmont College Summer Residency went to Eloisa Koroshec of San Marcos High School.
The following top four scholarships also receive an all expenses paid trip to The GLC Leadership Experience in Washington, D.C., with students from the San Diego GLC program as well as the National Council on Youth Leadership program of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
This trip is valued at $3,000 and is accompanied by their financial scholarship.
Isaac Reynoso of Dos Pueblos High School won the Austin D. Patrick Leader in Excellence $750 Scholarship. Sage Holcombe of Laguna Blanca won the Johnston Family Leader in Excellence $750 Scholarship.
The Busch Family Youth Leader of the Year $1,000 Scholarship went to Brandon Fuladi of Laguna Blanca. Keegan Withrow of Santa Ynez Valley High School was awarded the Jamie Harder Youth Leader of the Year $1,000 Scholarship.
More than 80 students applied and participated in this year’s GLC program, representing eight schools in the community.
In 2008 GLC established its first program in San Diego, in partnership with the University of San Diego. It expanded to the Santa Barbara area the next year, pairing with UCSB and Westmont College.
Global Leadership Connection is a 501(c)(3) organization.