Around Town: Local students among recipients of new Amazon scholarship

In the latest column, news about local students who have received an Amazon Future Engineer Hardware Design & Engineering Scholarship and Santa Clara County’s Children’s Budget, which amounts to $1.09 billion.

INVESTING IN THE FUTURE … A handful of local students are among the first batch of scholars who have been awarded an Amazon Future Engineer Hardware Design & Engineering Scholarship. The e-commerce giant collaborated with The Tech Interactive, a science and technology center in San Jose, to pick the 14 recipients from underserved and underrepresented communities in northern California, according to a Sept. 29 press release.

The selected students will be given $40,000 during a four-year span to study computer science beginning this fall. They’ll also have a chance to enter a paid, 12-week internship program at Amazon Lab126, a research and development company behind many well-known products, such as the Amazon Kindle e-readers and Amazon Echo smart speakers.

The scholarship recipients include Palo Alto resident Ria Rajput, a Gunn High School graduate who’s heading to the University of California, Davis; San Jose resident Jasmine Tostado, an Eastside College Preparatory School graduate committed to Stanford University; East Palo Alto resident Diego Zepeda, an East Palo Alto Academy graduate who’ll attend DeAnza College; and Daly City resident Marcellina Chang who is committed to Stanford University.

“We are inspired by the talent and work ethic of our Amazon Future Engineer HDE Scholarship recipients, and look forward to seeing them at their Amazon internships,” Victor Reinoso, global director of Amazon’s philanthropic education initiatives, said in the release. The scholars were selected based on a variety of factors, such as their academic performance, involvement in school and community activities, work experience, future goals, financial need and interest and skill in hardware, robotics and/or mechanical engineering.

SUPPORTING SYSTEMS … Santa Clara County recently released its Children’s Budget for the fiscal year 2023 that, based on the adopted budget, amounts to $1.09 billion in spending for services to finance children, youth and family programs.

“Year-over-year spending for the Children’s Budget increased by 3.5% in FY 2022-2023, the equivalent of more than $40 million in additional funding for the fiscal year,” the county’s press release stated.

The Children’s Budget, which accounts for 10% of the county’s total expenditures, will support programs established before the start of the pandemic and introduce new funding for services critically needed by children and families in the county.

County Executive Jeff Smith acknowledged the long-term challenges of the pandemic while recognizing the commitment of the community to assist its children and youth. “The pandemic has tested our resolve in countless ways over the past two and a half years. I am proud to say that, throughout this experience, our determination to protect, uplift and promote the success of our children never wavered,” he said in the budget preface.

The budget will fund nine new services and programs, including the expansion of an Employee Childcare Assistance Pilot Program, the expansion of a Summer Camp and Enrichment Program, a Youth Drop-in Center in downtown San Jose and a program known as the Children’s Roadmap to Recovery, which offers support services for children who lost a caregiver due to the pandemic.