On January 31, 2018 we welcomed seven new 7th grade students from El Monte into PSP. They join eight students from Lennox to complete our class of 2023 cohort.

We celebrated the seven new El Monte scholars with community leaders, school staff and administration, current and PSP alumni.

Read more and see photos from our celebration below. You can read about our newest scholars from Lennox here.

Mr. George Schonborn was our master of ceremony and kicked off the celebration. He introduced Kranz Intermediate School principal, Mr. Sean Grycel. They shared more about PSP and spoke about the strong partnership of PSP with the El Monte community.

Our current PSP 8th grade scholars presented their experiences to the audience and new scholars. They went on trips to Stanford and Northern California, tried new cuisines, and bonded with their mentors and each other. They were excited to welcome new scholars into the program and give them some advice for the year to come.

We were joined by two of our El Monte PSP alumni, Stephanie Felix a California State University, Los Angeles graduate and Jenny Nguyen, a Carleton College graduate. They came back to speak on their experiences in the program and how PSP prepared them for their college journey. We are thrilled they want to give back to the program and their community by becoming mentors!

PSP’s Executive Director Lisa Ruben invited the El Monte regional coordinators Ms. Arlene LeGaspe and Ms. Camille Osburn to present the new 7th grade scholars. Each one of the seven scholars spoke about themselves and their goals and dream college. These ranged from UCLA to Tuskegee University. Several scholars want to be engineers and one wants to be a neurologist.

Overall, our induction ceremony was a celebration of these seven young scholars and their success so far. We are grateful to have such a great community supporting PSP and the work that we do. We are excited to support these scholars and all of our scholars and seeing their successes. Congratulations class of 2023!