Western Heritage Scholarship

Western Heritage Scholarship Background

 

The Mounted Patrol Foundation has this year established the Western Heritage Scholarship. Its aim is to help high school students heading off for advanced education or training who support Western heritage ideals, lifestyle and history and who have a financial need.

The Scholarship will be awarded on a occasional  basis when the Western Heritage Scholarship Committee has determined there is an outstanding candidate who meets the criteria below.  Individuals can also nominate a student for this scholarship if they feel that he or she is a worthy candidate. 

The goals and criteria for this award are different than those of the Woodside-area Equestrian Merit Scholarship.

▪ Extensive employment or experience working in the equestrian business (20%)
▪ Demonstrated financial need (40%)
▪ Commitment to an equestrian related profession, such as trainer, competitor, farrier, vet, vet technician, barn manager, equine researcher, rancher etc. (20%)
▪ Reasonable academic performance. (10%)
▪ Community involvement (10%)

 

2022 Western Heritage Scholarship winner announced

After careful review, the Mounted Patrol Foundation Western Heritage Scholarship Committee has awarded this to Michael Procopio Santos. He will be attending Fresno State this fall, studying Equine Science. He has been awarded $8,300 for the first semester tuition and board.

Michael is the ideal first recipient of the Western Heritage Scholarship. He exceeds all of the criteria established for this award. Michael was born in Palo Alto (in a house with five other families) to immigrant parents who moved to the US when his mother was pregnant in the hopes of giving their child a better life and education.

Within a couple of years after his birth, his family moved to live and work on a ranch in Half Moon Bay. This is where Michael grew up. Through his youth and teen years he has done everything and every chore there is to do on a ranch, even getting to the point where he could buy and take care of his own Appaloosa horse Ali.

Michael and Ali at the ranch

By high school, Michael was not only a ranch hand, but he also took on another job on a large farm that also had swine, poultry, sheep and cattle. And he even found time to volunteer at the Steinbeck Peninsula Equine Clinics. All of this work with large animals, while maintaining a 3.7 GPA in high school, led Michael on a path to make large animals a career. As a first generation American, the first in his family to graduate from high school, and the first to go to college, Michael is focused on becoming a large animal veterinarian.

The Western Heritage Scholarship will help make Michael’s dream a reality.

 

 

 

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