April 8, 2005

Friday, April 29
Second annual East Side Heroes scholarship dinner honors Sara Zuniga

The East Side Heroes scholarship pays tuition for qualified eighth and ninth grade students who have already been accepted into a private high school, but cannot afford to attend.

Sara Zuniga

Sara Zuniga, the East Side Heroes 2005 scholarship recipient, will be honored at a scholarship dinner to be held on Friday, April 29, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the American GI Forum, located at 765 Story Road in San Jose.

Sara, an eighth grade student at River Glen Middle School, has dreamed of attending and graduating from Notre Dame High School since she was 5 years old. She lives in East San Jose with her parents and two younger sisters.

Sara currently has more than a 3.5 grade point average and recently won first place in a math contest held at the NASA Ames Research Center. Sara dreams of attending either Santa Clara University or Stanford University and to eventually become a lawyer. She already enjoys tutoring and helping her fellow students.

To qualify for the East Side Heroes’ Scholarship, students must have over a 3.0 GPA, come from a low-income household and demonstrate the desire and commitment to graduate from college and assist their community through East Side Heroes’ student-led community-improvement projects and peer-mentoring.

East Side Heroes is an up-and-coming non-profit organization committed to improving the quality of life for individuals and their families within diverse communities. Through educational scholarships, innovative student-led community-improvement projects and personal life-long mentorship, East Side Heroes helps produce the next generation of problem-solving leaders.

Tickets for the event, with San Jose Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez presiding as master of ceremonies, cost $150 per seat. The fiscal agent for the 2005 event, the Center for Training and Careers, is a charitable tax deductible, 501 c3 contribution.

Make checks payable to the Center for Training and Careers with E.S. Heroes Scholarship on the memo line. Mail checks to Christina Sanchez (ESH), 645 Barto St., Santa Clara, CA 95051. For more information, contact Christina Sanchez (408) 391-5706 or e-mail east_side_heroes@hotmail.com.