Scholarship Winners

This scholarship is for incoming freshman engineering student, Jocelyn Zhang, and has been sponsored by Sponsored by SWE San Diego Endowed Scholarship & General Atomics.

Jocelyn Zhang is an incoming freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she plans to major in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Management. She has a strong passion for nanotechnology and has been researching nanomaterials at UC San Diego and Boston University for the past few years. She is a recent Regeneron Science Talent Search scholar and a winner of the SWENext Global Innovator Award. As President of Girls in Computer Science and the Del Norte Ambassador of All Girls STEM Society, she also aims to promote STEM and CS to young girls, through workshops, Hackathons, and panels.

This scholarship is for incoming freshman engineering student, Paulina Ai, and has been sponsored by Solar Turbines.

Paulina is an incoming freshman at the University of California, Berkeley intending to major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She is the founder of her high school’s SWENext club and served as president for two years. Her time volunteering with SWE-SD Outreach, hosting her highschool’s first hackathon, and pursuing research outside of school has strengthened her belief in supporting women and underrepresented groups in STEM. Paulina is very grateful for the SWE community and she is excited to continue involvement with SWE in college, where she plans to keep uplifting girls interested in engineering and CS.

This scholarship is for incoming freshman engineering student, Cecilia Moxley, and has been sponsored by ASML.

Cecilia is an incoming freshman at Caltech, where she will study Mechanical Engineering and play Division III Water Polo. Cecilia developed her passion for engineering through her school’s FIRST Robotics team, PLTW, and A.C.E. engineering programs. At her school Cecilia advocated for STEM: she worked to expand opportunities by adding two new classes to the engineering pathway, ran student tours of the labs, and led community outreach as the President of her team. Cecilia hopes to use engineering to make a positive impact by going into the renewable energy industry.

This scholarship is for incoming freshman engineering student, Guadalupe Santana De la Rosa, and has been sponsored by Lisa Vomero-Inouye Family.

Guadalupe Santana De la Rosa is a proud 18-year-old Mexican. She graduated from Mater Dei Catholic High School and has committed and will be attending the University of San Diego and majoring in mechanical engineering. During the four years of high school, she maintained over a 4.0 GPA and made many accomplishments. In her free time, she enjoys playing soccer. As she quotes “I thank God for providing me strength to endure any challenges, my parents for being my cheerleaders, but also all of my teachers. Faculty, family, and friends for always being supportive.”

This scholarship is for incoming freshman engineering student, Alyssa Wong, and has been sponsored by ASML.

Alyssa was the president of Eastlake’s SWENext as a sophomore, and this year she was Outreach Coordinator, in addition to being the CEO of FIRST Robotics Competition team TitanBot. She was her SWENext club’s Marketing Director and robotics team’s Mechanical Engineering Director in her junior year, while advocating for HeForSWE and mentoring FIRST teams. She is an active volunteer for SWE San Diego outreach, volunteering at over 30 events in the past 2 years. The nonprofit she co-founded, Sisters in STEM, has sponsored 8 events with SWE San Diego. Alyssa will be attending UC Berkeley for Bioengineering in the fall.

This scholarship is for continuing engineering student, Kyara Gandara, and has been sponsored by Joan Fisher in honor of William J. Fisher.

In 2017, Kyara Gandara received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Animation and Visual Effects with an emphasis in Storyboarding. As of 2023, she is currently attending SDSU to obtain a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, emphasis in Dynamics and Controls. She is doing research in the Dynamic Systems and Intelligent Machines Lab to develop obstacle avoiding algorithms for autonomous machines. The end goal is to develop autonomous machines that can aid in rescue situations. Kyara’s passion is to design robots that makes communities safe while bringing joy and laughter.