La Mesa and Spring Valley Students Receive Yale Club of San Diego Book Award

Submitted by Yale Club of San Diego

A La Mesa and Spring Valley resident were amongst the top performing juniors in San Diego County that were awarded the Yale Club of San Diego Book Award at the annual ceremony on Sunday, May 18. 

Spring Valley-resident Nitzana Alzalde, a student at The Preuss School, UCSD, and La Mesa-resident Ben Liad Schwartz, a student at La Jolla Country Day School, were two of 16 students given the award.

All students nominated by their schools for this recognition had to be in the top 2-3% of their class, and demonstrate leadership and “outstanding personal character and intellectual promise,” according to the Yale Club of San Diego.

Award recipients received a Yale-affiliated book chosen according to their interests, a DVD of an Open Yale Course, as well as a certificate highlighting their achievement.

Alzalde received Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan, and the Open Yale Course DVD: Global Problems of Population Growth.

The Yale Club Book Award was established to identify outstanding high school students and acknowledge their academic achievements. It also serves to "encourage students who might not otherwise have thought themselves likely candidates to consider Yale University as a possible choice for their college studies," said Giovanni Chimienti, Ph.D., University Professor, retired, and Chairman of the 2013 Yale Club of San Diego Book Award committee. Other Yale alumni serving on the Committee were: Paul Friedman, MD, Professor Emeritus, Radiology; The Honorable Robert Longstreth, Judge, Superior Court San Diego County; Elizabeth A. Porterfield, Attorney at Law; and Bryna Kranzler, Author.