Ariana Aparicio Aguilar was an IGCSF scholar from 2007 to 2011, which enabled her to fully-fund her undergraduate degree in Sociology and graduate with highest honors from Sonoma State University. Years later, she attended the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she obtained her master's in Higher Education. Now, she is about to begin her Ph.D. program in Higher Education Administration & Policy at UC Riverside.

Ariana grew up in West Marin as a first-generation college scholar who decided to pursue higher education ever since the 5th grade. Her parents and family were very encouraging and with that solid base she explored opportunities and interests that felt right for her. Along the way, in addition to her impressive education and work experience, Ariana won awards and honors, participated in numerous training programs, especially ones supporting undocumented students, presented at conferences and events, and gave herself in so many ways to others, especially with an understanding of the experience of students like herself trying to achieve their education. As a first-generation undocumented student, Ariana has been able to not only role model what’s possible but work directly with other students who seek higher education and more.

In addition to her educational achievements, Ariana has been actively involved in organizations seeking to create opportunity for others all over the country, while also serving on a number of West Marin nonprofit organizations such as the Dance Palace, Coastal Health Alliance, Tomales Bay Library Association, and Marin Latino Leaders. In addition, she’s worked with 10,000 Degrees, as an Academic Advisor at CSU Sonoma, and at Tomales High School where she was a student herself.

Ariana’s message to us all is that by funding students’ education, donors are not only helping them be closer to accomplishing their educational dreams, but they are creating a difference for their entire family. And she wants potential scholars to know that there are many kind and generous people who want to invest in students like them and it is a matter of connecting themselves with people in organizations like the West Marin Scholarship Program to make higher education a reality.

There’s so much more Ariana has achieved and she’s not slowing down! We couldn’t be more impressed or excited about what she’ll do with her life, and we know that whatever it is, it will make a difference for others. And, wherever she goes, she’ll always be a treasured member of our West Marin community.

Arika Martinoni, D.M.D., grew up in Tomales on her family’s ranch. She’s related to many families in our West Marin ranching community. When she applied for an IGC Scholarship Fund scholarship, Arika wrote that she planned to pursue a career in medicine and that she’d like to return to this area to serve her community. She achieved that goal graduating Midwestern University – College of Dental Medicine in 2021 following her undergraduate education at the University of Oregon when she was one of our scholars from 2011 to 2015.

In college Arika majored in Human Physiology and minored in Chemistry, graduating in 2015. She realized that she wanted to pursue a career in dentistry as early as when she was in 8th grade and through her undergrad college years when she in the Pre-Dental program as she achieved her Bachelor’s degree. What she always wanted is to have an ongoing relationship with her patients and their families. Dentistry enables her to do that. In June 2021, Arika achieved her goal of becoming a Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry, and she is now practicing in the North Bay. And, she has an adorable puppy -Twain.

Audrey Whitten is an English major at Brown University, planning to graduate the end of her fall semester in 2022. For her fall semester during Covid last year she attended college in a tent set up in her back yard which her father named, “Brown University – Point Reyes Extension Campus”. She took the spring semester off so she could have more time in person before her senior year. We were happy to suspend her scholarship – it made sense for her to have as much time actually at school as possible.

During her semester off, Audrey took a ceramics class at College of Marin, was a TA (virtually) for an Economics of Education class at Brown, and worked with a Brown professor in the Department of Education, researching the most effective methods of tutoring students that could become recommendations for schools. So, it wasn’t really a semester “off” after all.

Audrey chose Brown in part because it is close to RISD and Audrey hoped to take classes there as well. She loves art, particularly ceramics which she has done for a number of years. She chose to major in English because she has always loved reading, believing that books have so much to say about the world and our experiences.
Alongside her English major, Audrey has been taking classes in the Department of Education and is thinking about pursuing a career in education, maybe teaching. This past summer, she taught middle schoolers reading through Generation Teach. Her parents are educators. It’s something she sees herself doing, and apparently has been told by others that they see her doing it too.

When Audrey attended Marin Academy for high school, she fully emersed herself in the academic and extracurricular opportunities there. She recalls that, among the best experiences at MA, were the relationships she had with her teachers who knew and cared about her and possibly modeled how Audrey would like to be as a teacher herself.
Once she graduates, Audrey thinks she’ll take a little time before grad school to have some experience teaching, maybe with Teach for America or with the Fulbright Scholar Program. We expect that her students will get from her the full force of her love of literature and figuring out the best ways to enlighten and inform.

Brandon Hitchcock, one of our 4-year scholars, graduated from CSU Channel Islands in 2021 with a degree in Psychology and a Social Business minor. He has a definite goal which has motivated and inspired him for a number of years – to create his own substance abuse rehab program. Brandon had witnessed substance use when he was growing up and fortunately it scared him into never using himself, but he saw the toll substance use could take and has felt strongly that he wants to help people struggling with this issue.

When he moved to Tomales with his father at the beginning of high school things started to fall into place for Brandon. He had been an unmotivated student before coming to Tomales High. But he loved high school and was very happy at THS, able to apply himself and do really well academically in a place he could focus on school and have the attention of teachers who cared about him. In addition to his academic success, he loved the sports he played – football and baseball. Even though he was getting A’s in school, until his senior year he never considered going to college. His school counselor and others urged him to apply to some colleges and to apply for the IGCSF scholarship. When he was accepted to college and offered a substantial scholarship, he realized he could keep going with his academic career.

Brandon loved college maybe more than he loved high school. He says that CSU Channel Islands was the perfect school for him. It’s small and it’s in a beautiful place and it was the beginning of his realization that southern California is where he wants to be. Brandon made sure he would be able to graduate in 4 years, taking a lot of classes at times to achieve that goal. He says that the IGCSF scholarship motivated him to do well academically. Keeping that scholarship and making sure he met our expectations mattered to him.

Being an entrepreneur and also feeling that his work needs to make a difference to others are keys to Brandon’s personality. He’s not taking an easy path, but he’s risen to the occasion before and found the inner motivation that has enabled him to succeed. We think Brandon will create a program and a life that matters to him. And that makes other people’s lives better as well.

Faolan Cadiz just started college, fall of 2021, and she’s adjusting to being away on her own although she says she’s always been good at managing herself and since she and her family have traveled a lot, living in other countries several times, she will probably adapt well to being away from home. She grew up in Inverness, the 3rd generation of her family to live there. She loved growing up in West Marin amid many family members, and she has family nearby where she’s in college at Reed in Portland, Oregon.
After going to local schools through 8th grade, Faolan decided to go to Marin School of the Arts (MSA) at Novato High School. She’s a musician. The music program at MSA is competitive, applicants must audition. Music is “a family thing” and Faolan has been a musician since her grandmother started teaching her piano and voice when she was 5 years old. She recently started learning guitar as well. Music will always be an important part of her life.
At MSA Faolan liked being in a bigger school and was able to take advantage of Advanced Placement classes along with the discipline of the music program. She said, “You need to be focused at MSA”. When Covid hit her senior year, Faolan needed to adapt to online learning. Doing Jazz Choir and Rock Band classes remotely was an interesting challenge, but it went well. And she continued to do incredibly well academically.

For college Faolan looked at several options in the Northwest. She likes the rain! Reed offered a lot of tuition assistance and Faolan liked that it’s a liberal arts college, which is what she wanted. She pointed out that there are not very many liberal arts colleges in the west. She’s decided to major in English, she loves reading and writing. She says she has always felt like a generalist so she’s keeping her eyes and her options open.

So far, just a few weeks into her first year there, Reed has been great. The staff and faculty are incredibly available, caring, and helpful. Her curriculum this year is mainly a year long required Humanities course and Faolan has especially appreciated that her professor meets with her individually and wants to know her. Reed classes are not graded – it’s about the learning there. This works well for Faolan. Although she’s always been a very successful student, she hasn’t been focused on her grades.

In addition to music, Faolan has been involved in a number of other activities. She’s sailed at the Inverness Yacht club Youth Sailing Program and was recently one of the instructors. Also, she loves young children and was a preschool aide and a nanny for a family with very young twin boys. She’s done volunteer work such as at Gilead House, a Novato based non-profit that provides homes, resources, and support to homeless women and children that are victims of abuse and/or suffer from addiction. And she crocheted blankets to be sold to benefit the infant program at the Northbay Children’s Center.

We’re so glad Faolan is one of our scholars. We’re looking forward to seeing where she gravitates and what she focuses on as she continues through college. One thing for sure is that she’ll be involved and engaged and take full advantage of the opportunities that look interesting to her.

I was an IGCSF scholar from 2017 to 2021. My twin sister, Melea, and I were both scholars. We grew up in Bolinas, which was such a special place and community in so many ways. Growing up, I always liked to figure out how things worked and spent my free time voraciously reading, building with LEGO, or running outside and playing sports. While living in Bolinas meant I had a very long commute to the Branson School for high school, I decided to go to Branson because I wanted to be academically challenged and thought that it offered not only a great education, but many wonderful extracurricular opportunities such as athletics, theater, and community engagement. I had amazing teachers who became mentors and pushed me to grow and improve. Throughout high school, I made some very close friends and participated in activities including soccer, swimming, men’s leadership, maintaining the aquarium, and acting. Branson’s emphasis on the Socratic Method for classes engaged and inspired me, enabling me to be ready to take things to the next level in college.

Tufts University, where I graduated in 2021, was one of my top choices for college. While it took some adjusting at first because I did so much – classes, sports, clubs, social life, etc., I found my stride and loved every minute of it. I majored in Mechanical Engineering and minored in Engineering Management. I was also able to take some graduate-level courses during my senior year and continue into the master’s program at Tufts to position myself for a career in renewable energy and engineering.

While in college, I had summer internships every year, working at a biogas company after my sophomore year, and for a renewable energy consulting firm after my junior and senior years. I was able to work on designing solar energy systems for school districts in California and for the SF Public Utilities Commission that was looking to build alternative energy facilities in the southeast part of the city.

I would love to delve deeper into the renewable energy systems that haven’t been fully realized or developed yet and am very eager to begin my career in the energy industry next year. This is exciting stuff and I hope my work will make a difference in building a cleaner future for us all. 

Hiroki Coyle, who became a new scholar in 2021, is going to Carleton College in Minnesota which he visited in February (brrr!) and immediately felt was the best community and program for him. Hiroki lives in Point Reyes Station, and he attended the West Marin School through 8th grade when he decided he wanted to do something different for high school and went to San Domenico School in San Anselmo. What he found there was opportunity in areas that interest him – philosophy, ethics, World Religions – as well as a place he could learn math at a deeper level, which may be what he focuses on in college and beyond. But he said he is looking forward to exploring all kinds of possible interests and opportunities in college.

What Hiroki found at Carleton is community, humility, and wholesomeness. One of his teachers said at his graduation when he won the Veritas Award, the highest honor San Domenico offers is, “He is a quiet leader who never demands the spotlight, he really walks the walk - or rather, runs the run - of being a role model.”

In our West Marin community, Hiroki was an instructor at the Inverness Yacht Club Sailing Camp, and he worked at West Marin Community Services during the Covid pandemic. He was a Point Reyes Disaster Council Neighborhood Liaison volunteer, a high school JV basketball center, high school sailing team skipper, Math tutor, Student Ambassador, a Student Council member, and much more.

We are so glad Hiroki is one of our scholars. We imagine he will love and do amazing things in college and beyond.

My name is Ivan Padilla and I’m proud to be an undocumented, first-generation student on the cusp of commencing my fourth year at University of California, Davis. My majors are English, with a creative writing emphasis, and Studio Art. My fascination with fiction and illustrations is something that I’ve carried with me since I was a child.  

As a fourth-year student I’m nearly finished with my English degree. Over the past three years, I’ve learned a lot about literature and writing, as well as about myself. I found my voice as a writer and have been using it to venture into various forms of writing such as journalism, research-based writing, and business writing. In my final year, my aim is to learn more about poetry as well as gain journalistic experience via my school’s newspaper or other editing opportunities.

This college experience has allowed me to evolve as a person and pursue my artistic passions. I began my second school year as a now English and Art double major to give myself the opportunity to use my imagination and love for art in a studio environment. The first courses I took, beginning drawing and painting, frightened me because I wasn’t used to showing my work to other students and wouldn’t feel proud of the artwork I created if it wasn’t “perfect”. After two years of more challenging art courses, I realized that art should be for one’s own self and to lose my fears and share my artwork with peers and professors. I found my confidence and learned to accept criticism and feedback.

When I’m not in the studio working on art projects or in the library editing a paper, I like to visit the UC Davis Arboretum and admire the scenery. I love riding my bike or roller skating on campus or near my house. I’ve also been working on developing a story I created years ago, with updated illustrations as well.

 Looking ahead, I want to work for a publishing house or a newspaper. I also want to start writing a couple books that have been in the making for years. This last year of college is when I can apply the confidence in myself I’ve gained and explore what direction I want to go with my writing and other interests. College enabled me to evolve, figure out what interests me and what I might be able to do.

In a word, Jonathan Barajas is personable! This quality will serve him well now that he’s graduated from college with a degree in Business and has started his own landscaping business – Eco Gardening (www.ecogardeningllc.com).
Jonathan was our scholar from 2016 to when he graduated from CSU Sonoma in 2020. When he started college, Jonathan says he got serious about school. It wasn’t easy and he had to regroup at one point, but he was determined to get as much out of his college education as possible.

Before college Jonathan lived in Tomales Bay State Park where his father worked. Although it was a beautiful place to live, it was remote, and he had a long commute to Tomales High School. He did a lot of his homework on the school bus, over an hour’s drive each way. He also played sports and especially remembers how playing football taught him some important life lessons. He remembers finding himself in an AP Statistics class taught by his coach who said he thought Jonathan could do it although Jonathan didn’t think of himself as being good at math at the time. It turns out he was pretty good at it when he applied himself – he earned a 4 on the AP exam.

Business is something Jonathan wanted to study as early as the beginning of high school. His last year of college he decided he wanted to create his own business right away rather than maybe never doing it if he waited. Explaining why he decided to create a business focused on being environmentally conscientious, he said that when you think about it, gardening involves using pesticides, fossil fuels, water, and other worrisome or limited resources. He’d like to focus on gardening methods that are not harmful to the environment.

Jonathan said that getting a college education “allowed me to know more about how businesses are run, and I know how to do my own accounting and understand tax structure. And I believe that the knowledge I acquired in school directly translated to being able to make better business decisions. In my case college has been vital for me to run the administrative part of owning a business.”

Seeking resources, engaging with others, staying motivated, always learning … Jonathan personifies why we love partnering with local students who have what it takes to make college a step toward self-sufficiency and achievement. Bravo!

Kathryn Whitten just started her 2nd year of college, in the fall of 2021, at Columbia University. She spent her first year of college at home because of the Covid shutdown, a different and transformative way to start her college career. She chose Columbia because the values of the education there resonated with her. She’s taking a core curriculum that emphasizes the classics, philosophy, and humanities. She feels that this approach will inform and enrich whatever she chooses to focus on and do with her life. And she loves being in NYC – the city offers so much and is so different from what she’s known growing up in Marin.

When she decided to go to a rigorously academic high school – Marin Academy - Kathryn experienced having to work hard to do well in an environment where the academic standards were much higher than what she had previously experienced. She discovered that she could succeed in the upper-level math classes, for example, even though she thought math isn’t something she’d be good at. Once at college, the academic rigor continues but Kathryn knows how to work at that level and appreciates that she can challenge herself.

Her first year of college, at home, Kathryn found that the virtual classes were engaging, and her professors did a remarkable job keeping their classes interesting, intense, and interactive. She feels she had a good year and that, surprisingly, having to stay home changed her in a profound and positive way. She had been looking forward to getting away from Marin to the city, among lots of people and new experiences. Staying home meant spending a lot of time with family or alone and exploring the natural environment of West Marin. She now has a huge appreciation for the beauty of this area and cherishes the time she got, unexpectedly, to spend with her family. Over the last summer, Kathryn taught an art class with the program, Art With Elders. It was a virtual class, and so it was particularly challenging not to be with her students in person. She loved teaching. It was affirming and rewarding, maybe even more so because she had to make it work under adverse circumstances.

Being home also enabled Kathryn to focus on her drawing and painting in new ways. In addition to painting portraits, she really became fascinated with the landscapes of West Marin. She’s been an artist since she was very young. She is focusing on art in college. Columbia has one of the top art programs, which is also why she choose to go there. And she wants to teach – perhaps be a professor of art. The combination of a liberal arts education and top art instruction is a good way to acquire both technique and an understanding of what is being communicated through the medium of art that expresses ideas, perspectives, and personal values.
Every year before school started, Kathryn’s father would talk with her about how education is a gift and a privilege and that inspired her to make the most of being in school. She loves that her father did that – it made a difference. And we think Kathryn will make a similar difference for others she teaches as well.

Meléa Emunah graduated from Princeton University in 2021 and stayed on the complete a master’s program in Environmental Engineering. She grew up in Bolinas and says that the natural environment and community there were truly special. When she went over the hill to high school, Meléa both appreciated where she’d grown up and lived and realized that it’s somewhat remote. Due to a generous financial aid award, she was fortunate enough to attend The Branson School, where she discovered new challenges and opportunities. For instance, Meléa joined the track team as a short sprinter! Also, she loved being a leader of Branson’s Sustainable Seas club, an intertidal monitoring program that took place in Bolinas. She felt it melded her Bolinas and Branson selves. Ultimately, Meléa is grateful that she felt she could be herself in a school community that is very different from her community at home. Meléa also danced with Zaccho Youth Company, a pre-professional aerial arts company during high school, having begun aerial arts at a young age in Bolinas.

Going to college was always Meléa’s plan. She explored a lot of college options and felt good about Princeton, liking that it’s relatively small but has amazing resources, and the Engineering department there is one of the best. She enjoyed finding a new sport in rock climbing and started an aerial arts club, which has continued to exist there since she graduated. The Engineering program at Princeton was challenging, especially in her first year. But Meléa grew to really appreciate her department. With engineering, she always knew she wanted to focus on the environment. In her third year, Meléa was able to study abroad at the University of Oxford, which was one of the highlights of her college experience.

In her graduate program, Meléa is interested in studying how chemical contaminants are transported through the environment and how they degrade. As all of us can imagine, this is a huge topic and of great importance to us all. Meléa may look to work at an environment non-profit once she achieves her master’s. Eventually, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in oceanography. She’d love to return to the west coast. We hope to have her back in our area and maybe she’ll land nearby. She has so much to contribute and achieve.

I think college has really opened my eyes to the real world, not only expanding my knowledge but also enabling me to consider all my responsibilities. The biggest change/ struggle when starting college is that I am responsible for myself. Professors in college don’t remind me of what is due and what they expect from me. This was something that I needed to get used to, especially coming from Tomales High School where we had so much support from all the teachers.

College made me feel independent and positive that I was moving in the right direction. It also made me more aware: aware of different people, their beliefs, and backgrounds. Students in college are not as worried about fitting in because everyone is there to learn and progress. I learned a lot about responsibility and time management as well as learning more about myself and what I like and dislike.

Moving on to the Veterinary Technology program at SRJC, I’ve found that the students there are even more diverse, especially in age. This made me realize that it’s never too late to start college and continue your educational journey. Between my coursework and an intense internship with a local veterinarian, I am now about to embark on a career I’m very excited about.