Announcing our 2022 Winners
Meet Our Class of 2022
We’re pleased to announce our 2022 award winners. They include a pair of 18-year-olds and a well-known resident who turned 100 years old earlier this year.
Co-recipients of the Sequoia Awards Outstanding Student Award are Kenzy Mashraki of Woodside High School and Daniel Torres Aguilar of Everest Public High School. Each will receive a scholarship of $30,000. Kenzy is a passionate advocate for a healthy environment who created and organized a trash patrol of volunteers. They have removed hundreds of pounds of garbage from our public spaces. Daniel volunteers with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue program and gives his time to numerous programs at Everest, including student engagement, fundraising, event organization, and more. Combined, they donated more than 1,000 hours of their time over the past year.
In addition to honoring local students, The Sequoia Awards annually recognizes an Outstanding Individual for continuing volunteer work in the community. This year, the honoree is Gloria Kennett in recognition of her decades of work in support of Sequoia Hospital, among many other causes. Kennett recently celebrated her 100th birthday.
The Sequoia Awards also recognizes a local business for its voluntary contributions to the community. This year’s honoree is the Costco Wholesale Redwood City warehouse for its ongoing contribution of food and goods to the community’s neediest.
“This year’s honorees prove that there is no age limit on volunteerism,” says Albert Lee, Sequoia Awards board president. “Anyone can step up and make a difference in their community. We are honoring an outstanding individual who started volunteering in 1951 and has literally given a lifetime to her community. And we have student award winners who have each donated hundreds of hours of their time this year to causes they believe in and that benefit all who live here.”
In all, 21 Redwood City students will receive a total of $210,000 in college scholarship funds from The Sequoia Awards this year. In addition to the two Outstanding Students of the Year, The Sequoia Awards named three Community Scholars, each of whom will receive scholarships of $10,000. They are Erika Rohlfes, Woodside High School; Jessalyn Yepez, Woodside High School; and Xitlali Curincita, Woodside High School-Cañada Middle College Program.
An additional 16 Redwood City high school seniors will receive Corporate Scholarships of $7,500 each. They are Andrew Ghazouli, Chloe Litton, Kaylene Lin, Seona Sherman, Maya Kornyeyeva, Ryan Yang, and Mira Bhatt from Carlmont High School; Melissa Paz-Flores from St. Francis High School; Shira Futornick from Summit Prep High School; Giselle Ibarra, Rianna Grant, and Joanna Sierra Contreras from Sequoia High School; and Ricardo Hernandez, Hilary Rodriguez-Marquez, Kaitlyn Delfs, and Claire Manuel from Woodside High School.
Here is a complete list of all the student scholarship recipients and the sponsors who made their scholarships possible:
Mira Bhatt
Carlmont High School
Redwood City Police Officers’ Association & Windy Hill Property Ventures
Xitali Curincita
Woodside High School (Cañada Middle College Program)
Merrill Lynch: A Bank of America Company & San Mateo County Credit Union
Kaitlyn Delfs
Woodside High School
Richard & Judith Imperiale (In Memory of Jill Imperiale) & Stanford University
Shira Futornick
Summit Prep High School
Heritage Bank of Commerce & Stanford Health Care
Andrew Ghazouli
Carlmont High School
Oracle USA
Rianna Grant
Sequoia High School
Juva Life & Hannig Law Firm
Ricardo Hernandez
Woodside High School
Franceschini Family & Greystar
Giselle Ibarra
Sequoia High School
Nintendo of America
Maya Kornyeyeva
Carlmont High School
BKF Engineers & Dostart Development
Kaylene Lin
Carlmont High School
Welch-Everett Family Trust
Chloe Litton
Carlmont High School
Lyngso Garden Materials & Recology San Mateo County
Claire Manuel
Woodside High School
Crittenden Family & DPR Construction
Kenzy Mashraki – Outstanding Student Award
Woodside High School
Pete and Paula Uccelli Foundation & W.L. Butler
Melissa Paz-Flores
St. Francis High School
Redwood City Firefighters Association & Sares Regis Group
Hillary Rodriguez-Marquez
Woodside High School
Meta
Erika Rohlfes
Woodside High School
Lori & Dennis McBride (In Memory of Billee Werby) & Danford Fisher Hannig Foundation
Seona Sherman
Carlmont High School
Black Mountain Properties
Joanna Sierra Contreras
Sequoia High School
The Sobrato Organization & Danford Fisher Hannig Foundation
Daniel Torres Aguilar – Outstanding Student Award
Everest Public High School
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative & Danford Fisher Hannig Foundation
Ryan Yang
Carlmont High School
Kaiser Permanente & Danford Fisher Hannig Foundation
Jessalyn Yepez
Woodside High School
Alice W. Coghlan R.N. Scholarship (Liza & Frank Bizzarro, Diane & Dr. Steven Howard) & Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital
ABOUT THE SEQUOIA AWARDS
A small group of civic leaders led by Pete and Paula Uccelli established The Sequoia Awards in 1990 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring volunteerism in Redwood City. The first Sequoia Awards scholarship was for $500. Since then, The Sequoia Awards has grown significantly thanks to support from local businesses, other nonprofits, and individuals in our community who understand the importance of an active and engaged citizenry and contribute to our organization. To date, we have distributed more than $2.4 million in scholarships to local high school seniors, based solely on their volunteerism.
