Local students receive Girls Inc. awards

Five Orange County high school students, including three from Costa Mesa’s Estancia High, recently received portions of a $115,000 Girls Inc. scholarship, according to a news release.

All the girls are members of Girls Inc.’s Orange County chapter, based in Costa Mesa, and are first-generation college students.

The recipients are junior Melanie Hercules and seniors Briseida Miranda and Jennifer Lopez, all of Estancia High; senior Amber Gibson of Edison High School in Huntington Beach; and senior Emily Ramos of Garden Grove High School.

All the recipients demonstrate how they “embody the Girls Inc. mission of being strong, smart and bold, and how it inspired [their] college and career goals,” according to the news release. Girls Inc. and JC Penney provided the funds.

“Each year is always special at Girls Inc., but with so many of our girls heading to college on scholarships and our 60th anniversary celebration both in 2014, I can’t help but to be exceptionally ecstatic about this year,” Lucy Santana-Ornelas, chief executive of Girls Inc. of Orange County, said in the release.

— Bradley Zint

Twitter: @bradleyzint