Business & Technology Partnership Scholarship Winners. Courtesy photo.
CAMARILLO — The five CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) students receiving scholarships at the Business & Technology Partnership (B&TP) Leadership dinner took different pathways to the University, but all have one thing in common: sincere gratitude for this gift.
“This really lifts a huge weight off my shoulders,” said Nursing student Jennifer Mallon. “I’m going to start crying just talking about it.”
The students will be formally presented with their $6,500 scholarship during an April 20 dinner from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the Westlake Village Inn at 31943 Agoura Road in Westlake Village.
The scholars were chosen based on criteria such as financial need, a grade-point average of at least 3.5, and a major in either business or the sciences.
Mallon already has her graduation photo planned. She intends to don her cap and gown, with her stethoscope, and stand next to a tower of her thick nursing textbooks.
“My biggest textbook is my medical surgical nursing textbook,” she said. “It’s 10 pounds and over 2,000 pages.”
When she’s not hitting the books in pursuit of her nursing degree, Mallon, 25, likes to engage in performance ice sculpture…with a chainsaw.
“I realize it’s an unusual hobby, but it’s really fun,” she said.
Alejandra Hernandez, 22, is pursuing a sweet dream. The Glendale native starts CSUCI in fall of 2017 as a junior in CSUCI’s Martin V. Smith School of Business & Economics with plans to enhance her home pastry business, The Sweet Cake Boutique.
Like the four other recipients, Hernandez is a non-traditional student. After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Pasadena as a certified pastry chef, she picked up classes at Los Angeles City College, then earned an Associate degree in business from Mount St. Mary’s University.
“This scholarship definitely served as a motivation to keep working hard in school, keep on getting good grades, and keep setting goals,” she said. “And after I graduate, I want to be the motivation for other students.”
Elya Spooner, 23, of Camarillo, calls herself a “non-traditional student in every way possible.”
Spooner is raising an infant and a toddler with her husband, Kevin, attending CSUCI full time as a Business major, and runs her own tutoring business.
“I gave birth a week or two before my semester started in the fall,” Spooner said. “That was brutal. And then the day before the semester started, my husband fell and destroyed his knee and couldn’t get up off the couch by himself.”
Spooner said she couldn’t have juggled it all without the understanding of the CSUCI faculty, who allowed her to bring her children to class in an emergency, arranged special times to meet with them, and helped her catch up when she had to miss class.
“I feel like everyone here has partnered with me, it’s made it easier for me to pursue school while working and having a family,” she said.
Scholarship recipients Jeremy Snoberger, 34, and Antonella Cammarota, 40, are receiving B&TP scholarships for the second time in a row. Both are thrilled and grateful, especially as both had to conquer some formidable demons on their way to success.
Snoberger went from belonging to a gang to becoming valedictorian of his class last year at Ventura College with a 3.97 grade-point average. He now holds three Associate degrees and plans to graduate from CSUCI with a degree in Biology.
Snoberger grew up in Oxnard, finished high school at 14 and went to work in construction to help support his family. When he was 18, he got certified in computer science, where he worked for years. He also got involved with drugs and gangs.
When he wound up in front of a judge, facing 35 years in prison, the judge saw something in him and let him go with time served. Snoberger embraced the opportunity.
“When I had my first daughter, it was a wakeup call,” he said. “I had to do something to make her life better than my own, just like my parents wanted for me. I quit everything cold turkey.”
Now the father of three girls, Snoberger has a fiancée and plans to someday go into molecular biology research. He wants to research cures for diseases like Hepatitis C, which claimed his father’s life.
Cammarota is a transfer student from Oxnard College going into her second year at CSUCI with plans to earn a degree in Information Technology.The road to her dream has had detours. Cammarota married, divorced, and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, then lost her way.
“I found a world of addiction, domestic abuse with various partners,” she said.
Then, five years ago, she gave birth to her daughter, who lit up her life and inspired her to get sober and go back to school.
“I was kind of sad and depressed in my life and I kind of lost everything,” Cammarota said. “She brought me back my joy.”
The day before she learned she had won a B&TP scholarship, Cammarota was ready to quit school as she could no longer afford it. Then, the call came.
“This gives me the opportunity to continue this journey,” she said, tears flooding her eyes. “And it lets me know I’m where I should be, and this dream is real.”
For more information about the dinner and to make reservations visit: http://www.csuci.edu/btp/btp-leadership-2017.htm.
To help support the B&TP Scholarship fund, open a new text message and a text to: 41444. You will then receive a text message response with a link you can click to add your gift by providing your credit card number. The link is secure and it takes just a few minutes to process.
About California State University Channel Islands: CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CSUCI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CSUCI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CSUCI’s Social Media.