Riverside grad awarded La Sierra Presidential Scholarship

  Biology  

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – High school senior Elizabeth Paul was patiently checking her email and awaiting word this spring, hopeful but uncertain about the outcome of her application for La Sierra University’s largest scholarship.

When the message did arrive in late April from La Sierra’s Enrollment Services office, the news was a bit of a shock. “I did not expect to actually get the scholarship. So he [interim Vice President Wayne Dunbar] called me and I was very surprised and very humbled and grateful for receiving the scholarship,” she said. The news that she was this year’s Presidential Scholar sweetened her graduation on May 28 from the Riverside STEM High School with a 4.4 weighted grade point average. It was a joyful event complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic in which graduates had a drive-through ceremony. “It's socially distanced and you have to wear masks, but it's still amazing how much effort our staff was able to put into it,” said Paul during the week prior.

This September, Paul will start classes at La Sierra as a pre-med and biology major with a goal of working in the medical field with underserved populations. She is the third member of her family to attend La Sierra. Her mother, Lijia, and her aunt also graduated from the university. Their positive experiences prompted Paul’s exclusive interest in the Riverside institution. “[La Sierra] was the only school I applied to,” she said. “And it was my first choice because I wanted to go to a school that not only provides and produces great graduates, it produces good people. And there's also a small student-to-teacher ratio and the opportunity to mingle with faculty.”

"I was elated that Elizabeth received this award and am incredibly proud of my daughter,” commented Lijia Paul who studied biology and psychology. “I’m so excited for her journey at La Sierra. I know from experience that she will be part of an amazing and supportive community throughout these next four years." 

She continued, "My experience at La Sierra is one I’m thrilled to share with my daughter. An inclusive school rich with diversity of ideas, I learned not only about the world around me but myself. Faculty investment into student success was one of the things I remember most; their impact on my education helped me get to where I am today." 

The Presidential Scholarship is La Sierra’s largest scholarship given once annually and which provides recipients with $15,000 a year for four years toward tuition costs. Scholarship criteria includes a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.6 and a demonstrated dedication on the part of applicants to improving the world around them. Students who have been admitted to La Sierra University and meet the GPA requirement must also submit a curriculum vitae describing their accomplishments and write an essay outlining how they have strived to understand and serve others, and how those experiences have helped to shape them and have impacted those they served.

Riverside STEM High School grad awarded La Sierra Presidential Scholarship (Continuation)

Elizabeth Paul on her graduation day from Riverside STEM High School with her parents, Saji and Lijia Paul, and her brother, Daniel Paul.

“[La Sierra] was the only school I applied to ... it was my first choice because I wanted to go to a school that not only provides and produces great graduates, it produces good people." --- Elizabeth Paul, 2020-2021 Presidential Scholarship recipient.

Paul has already gotten a taste of La Sierra University academics. Last fall she emailed La Sierra Associate Biology Professor Arturo Diaz and asked whether she might be she allowed to work as a volunteer in his virology lab. Diaz agreed and Paul spent about six hours every week for two months assisting undergraduate student Uylae Kim in characterizing his bacteriophage named YuuY. “I saw that Dr. Diaz is putting out a lot of papers and I looked at more of his work, and it seemed really, really interesting, especially because I've always been very interested in microbiology,” Paul said. “I asked him if there was any way I can volunteer in his lab, and he very graciously let me.”

Paul’s mother graduated from La Sierra in 1998 toward becoming a cytotechnologist. She went back to school at Western University graduating in 2017 to become a physician’s assistant. Her father is a social work supervisor with Riverside County’s Adult Protective Services division.

Paul’s parents’ careers and values have influenced her interests in working with vulnerable communities where socioeconomic disparities have strong impacts on health and wellbeing. Other mentors throughout her life are many and varied, she said, and include some of her school teachers and leaders at St. Mary’s Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church in Whittier where she and her family are members. “I’ve made a lot of close friends and I have my lifelong mentors there,” Paul said.

Paul’s parents and many members of their church immigrated to the United States from the Kerala region of South India. Her grandfather is a priest who arrived from India to help establish the church. She and her parents and 16-year-old brother live in Riverside and prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, traveled to Whittier each Sunday to attend services.

During her high school years she earned awards and recognitions including the AP Scholar with Distinction in 2019, took college-level statistics and held leadership positions. While maintaining a full academic plate, over the past several years Paul has also acted on her concern for those who are struggling by participating in multiple food and toy drives for the local community and for Indian orphanages, and by offering free tutoring to students in various grade levels.

The tutoring sessions, which she advertised in red marker on her teachers’ white boards and through email blasts, became pivotal in inspiring a vision of her own objectives in life. More directly, she learned about the basic need many have for emotional support and confidence in surmounting challenges. “I found that tutoring was about helping people completely trust themselves. I started to realize that what people needed was a safe space to ask questions, make mistakes, fail, and try again without external judgment,” she wrote in her scholarship essay. “Tutoring is more than knowledge gained; it is the [instilling] of confidence and the tools to repeatedly do better no matter the daunting tasks ahead.”

Paul plans to continue tutoring online this summer. Any payment she receives for her work she will donate to Feeding America Riverside, Paul says.“Tutoring has made me recognize my place in the world,” she wrote. “Through service, I have found myself more aware of others. I know each person’s value and I will work to make sure that it is met, uncompromised.”

“Through service, I have found myself more aware of others. I know each person’s value and I will work to make sure that it is met, uncompromised.”
-- Elizabeth Paul

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