This unique scholarship program provides thirty selected outstanding alumni with the opportunity to identify a deserving scholarship recipient of their choice.

2008 SPONSOR PROFILE

Jeffrey J. Soldano
Woodland Hills, California

Jeffrey was working full-time for Kaiser Permanente when he decided to pursue a master’s degree. He enrolled at University of Phoenix because the school could accommodate his busy schedule. In 2006, Jeffrey graduated with his MBA, and was promoted almost instantly. His salary increased by more than $20,000, and Jeffrey became one of the fastest rising managers at Kaiser Permanente. Jeffrey’s experience at University of Phoenix was so rewarding that he inspired four of his close friends and family members to enroll. Jeffrey is proud to present the Paying it Forward^SM Scholarship Program to a young family friend, Rachel Kilgore.

2008 RECIPIENT PROFILE

Rachel Kilgore
Norco, California

Rachel was determined to earn a college degree. While working more than 40 hours a week, Rachel enrolled at a community college, but her work schedule made attending classes difficult. She refused to give up on her dream of graduating from college, and continued to take classes. Rachel was thrilled to be awarded with the Paying it Forward^SM Scholarship Program. She can now afford to enroll at University of Phoenix and will pursue a degree in global business. She is passionate about culture and international studies, and hopes to become a cultural advisor or an international relations expert. Rachel knows she will encourage others to pursue an education — she hopes to become a role model for anyone who thinks they can not afford school or work toward a degree if they are employed full-time.

Rachel’s Shrimpy New Dehlite
•    2 TB olive oil
•    ½ pound fresh shrimp
•    ½ can coconut milk
•    2 sticks of green onion (cut into small pieces)
•    ½ red pepper cut into 1/2” pieces
•    ½ cup sliced white onion
•    1 TB curry powder
•    ½ TB turmeric powder
•    1 TB garlic powder
•    4 dashes chili powder
•    4 dashes cumin powder
•    4 dashes seasoning salt
•    4 dashes ginger powder

Peel off the legs of the shrimp and set in pile. Put oil and onion in a large electric wok and put on medium heat. When the onions are grilled slightly add the coconut milk, green onions and curry powder. Mix around the ingredients for a couple seconds and then add the shrimp. Keep mixing for a couple seconds so that the shrimp are covered in the sauce. Add all of the other spices and red pepper. Keep mixing and flip the shrimp until they are pink.

Eat with dahl and naan bread.

We are coming up on our one year anniversary. This has been the best year of our lives and we are just getting started. We traveled to San Francisco, Europe and New York. We changed the company together with the green team and Lucas’ motivation for my job. We had great holidays, went to film festivals in Europe and California, rode miles on our bikes, made great food, had great conversations, met great people and did it all together. We met each other’s families this year and we all get along great. I met his mom, sister and dad. He met almost my whole extended family. We learned a lot about each other and ourselves, and I can’t wait to see our next year together for the Roboto family!

We traveled to New York this Christmas to see Lucas’ mom and sister. It was my first time adventuring to the east coast, and to the big city. I had to fly by myself because I was not given the vacation, so I met up with the Magasweran/Gauthier family on December 23rd. We started opening gifts and eating tons of food almost immediately. Lucas, Caroline and I decorated the house in Christmas knick-nacks and put up a little tree with home made ornaments and gold tinsel. We made Christmas log cake together and went to Central Park for Christmas day.

New York was something to be remembered. We visited many of the tourists spots because it was my first time there and I was not formally announced as a New Yorker yet. We strolled through Central Park, took buses and subways around the city, saw the big tree at Rockefeller Center, went to 5th ave. the day after Christmas, saw Tiffany’s jewelry store, ate a hot dog from a street vendor, and went to three H & M’s in the first two days.

The next days followed with having family time and watching the snow outside melt and the chilly weather freeze the city over. Next, we took a walk to my great grandparent’s old house on 114th street. We took a tour around Columbia university first, and then saw the dirt pile that was their first home in America. We also took a look around Riverside Park which was down the street from them. It was gloomy, but beautiful and we hung out with the friendly squirrels and swung on monkey bars.

We got a City Pass, so we started going to the museums. We first headed to the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. We watched a movie about collisions that didn’t include the Big Bang and we saw manequin people that represented the many cultures. We also saw enormous dinosaurs and taxidermy animals galore.

The next day we headed out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I got to see the statue for the first time as my ancestors did almost a hundred years ago. At Ellis Island I couldn’t find my great Grandparent’s names, but we got to see the holding room for the 22 million peole that went through Ellis Island and got to hear of the horrors of the place as well as accomplishments of the people coming in for freedom.

Next we were around Wall Street, the South Street Seaport and Fresh Salt Restaurant (which was really delicious). We then headed out for Hoboken, NJ to see Lucas’ friend from Hong Kong University who invented the Hobo Hooka. We got a little tipsy, played some beer pong (won 2 of 2 games) and Lucas had to carry me across state lines (losing my hat in the process), and we proceeded to sleep half the day away.

New Years Eve we woke up to snow falling. It was light, flaky and beautiful. But I was not looking forward to standing in the snow when we headed down to Times Square. We got out of the house after five, and to Times Square around six. There were already thousands of people waiting. We ran with the crowds down 6th ave. to a point where we could stand. We got our place at 50th & 7th Ave. I was the coldest day I had experienced thus far, and we were going to wait in the 14 degree weather for the next six hours! We stood in the saradine can for three hours with my six shirts, two jackets, four pairs of pants and nothing worked. We were not moving, so our bodies got colder. By the time my feet started to almost fall off we got out of our place in the pack. We found a small place to eat and rushed in for food and warmth. We also hoped that they would let us stay in there to see the ball drop- that’s what everyone else was thinking. We got a bite to eat and tried to eat slowly, but workers were blowing whistles at people that were not moving after thirty minutes. We headed out in the cold and found the next place on the side street -Applebees. We got in there and took our hour wait with a sigh of relief. We waited around an hour in the three story building where there was a crazy party up top. They finally seated us and we got drinks and watched Times Square on TV in Times Square.

It was now 11:45 and we walked outside to see our luck. The ball was covered up by buildings, but there were about 20 people waiting at the baricades with the cop. He said he would let us all out to see the ball at 11:59. He did, we watched it, yelled happy new year!, had our 2009 first kiss and ran out of there.

The party did not stop after that. We went to the bronx to see the scenyc guys now. We talked and hung out until we saw lights outside the window. Looking down, we saw about 30 cops running around outside. They saw us looking at them and started banging on the door and barged in. They told us that someone had been shot and they thought it was us. They found out it was next door, and it could have been the wanted man I saw on TV that same day.

After the craziness settled down, we hung out and left at day break.

The next day we headed to the Empire State building. It was freezing at night, but we got a great view of the city from 80 stories up. Before that was for the MOMA museum which was crowded because it was the free Friday night.

Our last day out we went back to Times Square after some shopping. It was beautiful and crazy and the essence of New York. We headed home with so much more to do for next time.

In August we are traveling to Dublin, Ireland to Caroline & Gavin’s wedding. After spending four days there, we are heading by ferry to the U.K. for five days. We are putting together a traveling website with our itinerary and pictures. Please visit it to follow us on our adventure this summer!

http://www.tripit.com/people/Mzzroboto

I decided to be with Lucas, and follow my heart, but I really wanted to take it slow. I had been in a relationship for over five years, and I wanted to date, go through the getting to know each other and have fun.

The day after I broke it off with the other guy, I was nervous. I didn’t know if Lucas actually wanted to date me. I woke up at 4am sick to my stomach with fear that I had ruined everything.

I came to work, and told him the news. He was happy about it, so it rested my mind a little. I also said I wanted to finally watch “King of Kong” with him and his projector at his home. He had asked me to go the week before when I was still in the relationship and I wanted to go but couldn’t. We set that date at lunch, at Mas’ Islamic of course, as he was asking me to come to China with him this summer. So off with the slow start!

After work we went to his house, and had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in Fullerton by candlelight. Then, I spent the night so we could go to the Griffith Observatory the next day. We went to the Observatory and had so much fun. We hiked up a huge hill and watched the scenery of the city, and learned about space all day. I kept getting messages from my mom and friends who were worried sick ab0ut me though. I didn’t want to even go into what was happening because no one would understand, and that is why the story played out the way it does.

That night I finally called my Mom after hundreds of crying messages. She proceeded to yell at me and say I couldn’t see Lucas anymore “The other man” and she wanted me back home and back with Cameron. I, being my stubborn self, yelled back, hung up and worried about what I was going to do. We talked about our options, and the only way to stay together was for me to live there. We had only dated for ONE DAY but I was going to sneak out of my house and live with him. We both knew that there was something different there, and we had to stay together.

I also kept getting calls from Cameron. He was also crying, and going around to all the things we used to do and crying over them and taking pictures and sending them to me. Along with that was all of my friends freaking out calling me to see if I was alive. It was a crazy jump, and no one was even aware I liked another guy, or that I was thinking of leaving Cameron.

That Saturday night I took him down to Norco, where my Mom and Dad were sleeping at 1am to sneak out and move to Anaheim with him. I dropped him off a block from my house to walk around the stinky streets of the horse town, as my heart beat out of my chest with fear. I crept inside the house, and my Dad was on the computer, turned away, and my Mom fell asleep on the couch right next to the door! I shoved things inside trash bags as quickly and quietly as I could. It took an hour to throw everything I had to have in bags and place them outside the door. The very last bag woke her up a bit, and I ran and through everything in my car and sped down the street. I tried calling Lucas, but he didn’t answer. I didn’t know if he got hit by a car, or if he called his friend Jason to pick him up from this crazy girl’s life.

I frantically called, and finally reached him after about ten tries. He was a mile down the street in the pitch dark. We drove home, and started the Roboto family.

We met at Econolite during the holidays. He was wearing his “Living the Brand” visor, and his jacket with pins that said “I love ASC/3″ and other such embarrassing phrases that obviously led me to want to talk to him. But little did he know, that I had been watching him for a couple months before, and thought he was cute, but never had the chance to talk to him.

We were eating ice cream at the November birthday’s celebration, and he suddenly turned to me asking me “What did you do for Thanksgiving?”. I said I went to Las Vegas to get away from my family. He said he went to San Francisco to see old friends. He went on to ask me the hard hitting questions right off the bat like what I did at Econolite and what I was doing with my life. I asked him what an Engineer did. Of course he explained with such detail.

He told me to come to Engineering anytime and I could check out what they did, but I never came, and we didn’t talk for a while. I really wanted him to talk to me again, so I reinstated my Facebook account, put the picture I knew he would like, and waited to hear from him. Sure enough he found it and talked to me. This led to us finally talking again, and then I asked him to lunch that day because everyone was gone to the sales meeting. We went out and had a great time, and went to lunch every day after that week. I couldn’t stop thinking about him after that, even though I had a boyfriend of five years. So I told myself I had to stop seeing him (but I really didn’t want to). He intruiged me, and I was attracted to him. Drama insued and I finally had to make decisions. I went to the sales meeting, got extremely drunk, and came back to work hung over. We went to lunch that day, and he took care of me, and the day ended with me giving him a letter of secret admiration. He wrote back on our elementary style flirtation that was going on, and I came home telling Cameron that I was hanging out with Lucas, and I wanted to leave him.

He gave me a big story of how he wanted to marry me, and be with me forever. I tried as hard as I could, and talked to myself into wanting to be with him, and I told myself I was going to tell Lucas I couldn’t talk to him. Of course that didn’t change anything. The next day I wrote a letter to Lucas to stop talking to me, and that “I don’t think we should see each other any more”. He wrote back saying “You don’t think we should see each other? Does that mean we can still see each other?”.

Days went on, and I tried not to speak to him, I told the girls at work, and some of my friends of the guy who wouldn’t leave me alone. The stalker. I tried to avoid thinking of him as much as I could, which lead to me to hanging out with him every day. Exactly one week later, I made up my mind. I had to break it off with Cameron and follow my heart to Lucas. I hung out in his office for an hour as my phone desperately rang, and I called back almost at 6 o’clock telling Cameron where I had been and that we were over.

 This was the start of Lucas & Rachel….