The Rotary Club of Castro Valley Announces $10,000 in Scholarships

The Rotary Club of Castro Valley Endowment Board is pleased to announce the recipients of the four scholarships awarded annually to graduates of Castro Valley High School.  Each scholarship recipient received $2500.

Alina Huang received The Bob Waberski Scholarship named after long-time Rotary Club of Castro Valley member and former President, who retired as Castro Valley’s Fire Chief in 1993.  Chief Waberski left a rich legacy of community service.  Alina will be attending the University of California at Berkeley leaning to a career as a Physician Assistant or a teacher.  Alina participated in many school service activities including the American Red Cross Club, California Scholarship Federation, Animal Rights Club, and the Tobacco Use Prevention Education Program, and was the Founder of the Animal Rights Club Pet Food Drive.  She was also very busy serving our community as a Factory Farming Awareness Coalition intern, Earth Team intern, and serving as a volunteer at the George Mark Children’s House, Oakland Zoo Camp.  Alina lives in Castro Valley with her parents  Li Chen and Jinwen Huang.  


Kelly Yu received the Castro Valley Rotary Club’s Endowment Scholarship for her commitment to serve others, which reflects Rotary’s “Service Above Self” commitment. Kelly will be attending the University with the goal of earning her BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) to serve others as a Nurse.  Her School Service activities included Associated Student Body Leadership, Interact, Program 3C, Science Olympiad and CVHS Link Crew, while her Community Service outside of School included: Hemophilia Foundation of Northern California and being active in the UCSF (University of California at San Francisco) HealthLink, Stanford Medical Youth Science Program and UCSF Brain Camp.  Kelly lives in Castro Valley with her parents Xueling Yu and Tingzhi Yu.  

Emily Xu received The Owen Smith Scholarship named in the memory of the long-time Rotary Club of Castro Valley, who along with his wife Erma, was committed to actively promoting education, including understanding the principles of property rights, entrepreneurship, limited government, and free market.  Emily will be attending the University of California at Davis studying to be a Physician.  On the Castro Valley High School campus, Emily was active in the following clubs: Unicef, Medical Students Association, and American Red Cross and outside of school was active with the CV Tutors.  Emily lives in Castro Valley with her parents Qiu Mei Sun and Han Lin Xu.

Ashley Fang received the Sunrise Scholarship. Ashley will be attending University of California- Berkeley preparing for her career goal to become a Physician.  She was quite active on campus in the Animal Rights Club, Medical Students Association, California Scholarship Federation, Link Crew Leader, and Earth Team Intern in the community as Co-founder of Castro Valley Virtual Tutors, Oakland Zoo Teen Wild Guide, and Sulphur Creek Nature Center Summer Camp Counselor.  Ashley lives in Castro Valley with her parents Andy Fang and Marcy Chien.


On behalf of the entire Rotary Club of Castro Valley and Endowment Board, Endowment Chair Bruce D. Johnson commends all of the recipients for their commitment to investing their lives in serving others stating “The students who were selected all have marvelous personal stories.  Some immigrated here as young children and all are involved in a variety of school activities and community service.  I appreciated that after viewing the 107 applicants that all of the recipients were on multiple committee member’s lists!  We are confident all four of these students will have a tremendous impact now and in the future.  We are very proud to recognize Alina, Ashley, Emily and Kelly for their outstanding service as well as their academic achievements.”

Castro Valley Rotarians John Aufdermauer, Heidi Hausauer, Bruce D. Johnson (Chair), Jim Negri, Dwight Perry, Ray Wallace (Secretary) and Dan Willitz (Vice-Chair/Treasurer) serve on the Endowment Board.  For more information on The Rotary Club of Castro Valley and the Endowment, please visit www.castrovalleyrotary.org.