Four scholarships were handed out Tuesday morning by the Central Valley Realtors Association to four seniors – two from Manteca High and two from Ripon High – instead of just one.

Follow a series of interviews before an audience of real estate professionals Tuesday morning at the River Islands Community Center, the judges left the room to make their decision.  To the surprise of the students, they returned saying that they couldn’t make a decision and all were getting a $500 scholarship rather than just one.

The three girls all spoke of their mothers and how they had guided them through their successes in their teen years – suggesting they couldn’t have done as well without them. Hearing the girls’ talk of their  challenges brought tears to a few women in the audience and there was a call for a box of tissues and a bottle of water for one of the student candidates.

Two of the candidates were from Ripon High School – Cameron Costa and Gagandip Singh.  Costa said he plans to attend the University of the Pacific and become a computer engineer.  Singh is going to attend University of California, Merced and major in Biology. From Manteca High were two girls – Makeila Hovis who will major in Nursing at Grand Canyon University and Isabella Garcia Mendez who will go on to UC Berkley where she will major in Political Science with emphasis on International Relations and French.