Five Fontana Unified seniors with dreams of helping others and uplifting communities will attend prestigious colleges and universities — such as Yale, Boston College, Northwestern, Scripps and UPenn — funded by full-ride QuestBridge National College Match scholarships.
The five seniors are among 1,464 U.S. students who matched with one of QuestBridge’s 42 college partners this year, receiving early admission to their matched college or university and four-year scholarships that cover the full cost of attendance, including tuition, room and board, books and supplies, and travel expenses.
“Fontana Unified’s Class of 2021 is an impressive group of students, with a history of high achievement and service to others,” FUSD Superintendent Randal S. Bassett said. “These five QuestBridge Scholars are no exception, and we congratulate them on their well-deserved scholarships to some of the nation’s most elite academic institutions.”
• Fontana High School seniors Vanessa Gutierrez and Fatima Kamara matched with Scripps College and Yale University, respectively. Gutierrez and Kamara are high-achieving students who have discovered lifelong passions through their studies and extracurriculars.
Gutierrez’s experience in Fohi’s Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program has inspired her to pursue a career as a physician assistant. In college, she hopes to join pre-med organizations, do research in biochemistry or psychology, and gain work experience in the healthcare field.
Kamara, who is serving as the FUSD’s 2020-21 Board of Education student representative and spends her free time volunteering at the Lewis Library and Technology Center, wants to major in political science and then become a lawyer and start a nonprofit.
• Kaiser High School seniors David Aguilar and Marco Garcia have also been awarded full-ride scholarships after matching with Northwestern University and University of Pennsylvania, respectively.
Aguilar and Garcia are highly engaged in Kaiser’s extracurriculars, competing in the Academic Decathlon, serving in the National Honor Society, playing in the Kaiser Catamount Pride Band and Color Guard and more. Both musicians have been selected to play in the San Bernardino County Basin Honor Band and the John Phillip Sousa Honor Band at Riverside City College, and Aguilar has played in the Tournament of Roses Honor Band.
Aguilar hopes to study political science in college and become a politician, serving as a voice for the unheard and making an impact on his community. Garcia plans to major in biology — a passion discovered at Kaiser — before attending medical school.
• Jurupa Hills High School senior John Nino Requieron matched with Boston College, where he plans to study nursing. He hopes to become a nurse and then a professor of nursing.
Requieron maintained a strong GPA while engaging in campus activities, serving in Key Club, Creative Writing, National Honor Society and California Scholarship Federation. Requieron also competes with Jurupa Hills’ Academic Decathlon and tennis teams, mentors his peers in Link Crew and spends his free time volunteering at a local hospital.
The QuestBridge National College Match is a college admission and scholarship process through which high-achieving, low-income students can be admitted early with four-year scholarships to QuestBridge college partners.
