Santa Maria scholarship recipient returns award to help another student

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The Breakfast Rotary Club of Santa Maria is awarding scholarships to 18 deserving students this year. 65 students applied for those scholarships.

But one recipient is being noticed for what he did after being notified that he was one of the lucky few to earn an award.

Erick Pinedo-Tovar attended Pioneer Valley High School and will continue his higher education at Cal Poly in the fall. The university notified Pinedo-Tovar that he had already received enough scholarships to pay for his tuition and all of his fees so he called the Rotary Club's Scholarship Chairperson Mike Gibson and requested his scholarship be given to another student.

The Rotary Club agreed and the scholarship was awarded to Amanda Tonascia, a senior at Righetti High School instead. It's the first scholarship Tonascia has received and she will attend Cal Poly as well.

"Isn't it great that we have students like Erick Pinedo-Tovar who exhibit such quality moral character? He thought about the bigger picture and took action to ensure that somebody he doesn't even know would get a scholarship she wouldn't have received otherwise. Erick has obviously received great guidance from his parents, teachers, as well as Boys & Girls Clubs of Mid Central Coast," stated Gibson.

Pinedo-Tovar is the President of the Keystone Club (a Character & Leadership Development program for teens) at Boys & Girls Clubs of Mid Central Coast (BGCMCC). He has represented BGCMCC as the Coastal Area Council Youth of the Year in 2019 (a regional award) and BGCMCC’s local Youth of the Year in 2020.