The Mono Lake Committee awards the Mono Lake Committee Scholarship to support Mono County students seeking post-high school education.
The Mono Lake Committee Scholarship is one of the ways the Committee is active in our community, contributing to support local students and families.
Why do places like Mono Lake matter?
Each year the Committee awards up to two $1,000 scholarships to students pursuing higher education who display a personal connection with Mono Lake and the Mono Lake story. Mono County resident high school seniors who have firm plans to further their education within a year of graduation qualify for the Mono Lake Committee Scholarship. Student applicants must visit Mono Lake and write an essay that responds to the question: Why do places like Mono Lake matter?
Application process
The Mono Lake Committee notifies Mono County high schools when the application process opens. Completed applications must be submitted to the Mono Lake Committee in mid-May each year. Please contact Education Program Manager Ryan Garrett with any questions or if you are interested in donating to the scholarship fund.
2023 Scholarship recipients and essays
In 2023, scholarships were awarded to Esha Eilts from Lee Vining High School and Kelly Thompson from Coleville High School. They both wrote thoughtful essays about the importance of Mono Lake both to them and to the world. We wish them well for their next step.
Excerpt from Esha Eilts’ essay
“I love my community and the nature that surrounds it. I will always remember being on June Mountain and seeing the deep blue of Mono Lake miles away. Backcountry skiing above Mono Lake and watching it appear bigger and bigger the higher I got. In the summer time getting salt in my hair and floating as I watch the birds and clouds float by. This evening all of the colors seem subdued, tired, the light gray sky glimmers in the lake. Everything appears simple, gray, brown, white, but as I look more at everything the more complicated it becomes, all the different grays, browns, and whites, the shifting shades. Just like life, it can be beautiful but not always easy. Mono Lake however, and other places in nature are my outlet to feeling at peace and as I sit here I feel at peace, more so than I have in a long time.” You can read the rest of Esha’s essay here.
Excerpt from Kelly Thompson’s essay
“I wanted to say goodbye to the place I grew up in. Looking out at the saline lake, I remembered my past; my mom talking about how influential that lake was to our community, my childhood tree and how I felt like I was the only one advocating for its safety and existence. That feeling came back to me. I couldn’t see as many tufa towers as I used to, and I became emotional when I heard a bird chirping, almost as if it was saying, ‘It’ll be okay. We’ll still be here.’” You can read the rest of Kelly’s essay here.
Previous scholarship recipients
2023: Esha Eilts from Lee Vining High School and Kelly Thompson from Coleville High School
2022: Kylee Lange from Coleville High School and Sergio Santillan-Leal from Lee Vining High School
2021: Chyann Andrews and Leonel Galindo from Lee Vining High School
2020: Keely Podosin from Mammoth High School and Ben Trefry from Lee Vining High School
2019: Sophia McKee from Lee Vining High School and Orion Ellis from Mammoth High School
2018: Rosalie Burch and Isabel Calderon from Lee Vining High School
2017: Reina Childs from Coleville High School and Charles DesBaillets from Lee Vining High School
2016: Berlin Del Aguila and Julie Harris from Lee Vining High School
2015: Carson Bold from Mammoth High School and Olivia Nelson from Lee Vining High School
2014: Patty Anne Hensley from Mammoth Lakes Academy and Alexis Romero Lee Vining High School
2013: Tristan Blommer and Courtney Duro from Lee Vining High School
2012: Cory Forbes, Alek McKee, and Natasha McCullough from Lee Vining High School and Cavanagh Gohlich from Coleville High School
2011: Angela Annett and Quincy Parker from Lee Vining High School
2010: Andrew Oliveira from Eastern Sierra Academy (Bridgeport) and Katie Woodruff from Lee Vining High School
2009: Justin Diem and Juan Carlos Pina from Eastern Sierra Academy (Bridgeport) and Erika Flores from Lee Vining High School
2008: Hannah Gehrman and Mariah McCullough from Lee Vining High School
Top photo by Santiago Escruceria.