Senior Ana Perez, who has received a few journalism scholarships, will receive a $1,000 award on June 5.

CCNMA: Latino Journalists of California, which aims to increase the number of Latino journalists, will recognize Perez and other three scholarship winners during a banquet dinner at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

“A challenging part was knowing that so many people want it,” Perez said of the competition to get this scholarship.

Perez applied in mid-April and was notified that she had received the scholarship three days after being interviewed in late May. Jacqueline Garcia, a multimedia journalist for Eastern Group Publications and who received the very same journalism scholarship in 2006, interviewed Perez.

Perez will receive the money when the fall semester starts. It will go toward transportation and housing costs at Cal Poly Pomona, where she will major in communications with a focus on multimedia.

Perez, who served as editor-in-chief of Prestige Yearbook during her senior year, earned a few other journalism scholarships while in high school. During her sophomore year, she won a scholarship from the Southern California Journalism Education Association that allowed her to attend a multimedia workshop in Reno, Nevada; she also received a scholarship from the James Alan Cox Foundation which gave her an SLR camera; then she also received a scholarship to attend the Lucie Foundation’s SNAPSHOP! workshop. In summer 2014, she was selected to attend J-Camp organized by the Asian American Journalists Association.

“All the hard work I’ve been doing is not going to waste and is being recognized,” said Perez, 18.

Her family was proud as well to hear what she’s accomplished. They were all extremely happy and offered very heartwarming congratulations on the scholarship this year.

“My mom was excited because she knows this is what I want to do with my life and my brother high-fived me,” Perez said.