Four seniors — Claire Bradford, Weston Benner, Grishma Oomman and Andrew Sazykin — were awarded the $5,000 2024 CITGO Scholarship on Sept. 15. The seniors were surprised in the college center with their family, and ABC 13 was present to document their experience.

“[This] was my first time being interviewed, like going on the news,” Sazykin said. “It was a great experience. They created a really festive mood and it was really nice.”

The CITGO Scholarship helps students focus on achieving a higher-level education by providing financial support. The scholarship has a wide-variety of categories in which they could apply to, including: Beating the Odds, Career and Technical Education, Communications, Performing and Fine Arts, STEM, Service and/or Leadership, Spirit and Student Athletics.

A friend of Sazykin’s told him about the scholarship last year. With his interest in STEM in mind, he decided to apply under that category, thinking, “Why not?”

“After I submitted [the application], I kind of forgot,” he said. “It was a really busy time during the year. My mentality was that I was going to submit it and hope for the best.”

Sazykin, an active member of Bellaire’s community, is on the varsity swim team and the vice president of Quiz Bowl.
“This scholarship means a lot to me,” Sazykin said. “I like to see it as an acknowledgment to the hard work I put into all my hard classes. This scholarship is like an encouragement for me to keep on applying for scholarships.”

Grishma Oomman, captain of the women’s varsity soccer team, said that with the scholarship, it has given her more “flexibility in [her] options.”

Oomman first heard about [the scholarship] during the student assembly, and saw it once more on the hot scholarship list. Her mom encouraged her to apply, so she did and applied under Student Athlete. Oomman’s family first was notified about her winning from the College Center.

“When I was looking at the cost of tuition for Cornell [University] versus UT, Cornell is a lot more expensive,” she said. “But with this scholarship, it could open up the door that if I were to get accepted into Cornell, [it’s] more of a feasible opportunity.”

Oomman recommends students to “apply to you and where you are at in life.”“Be smart about what you’re applying for,” Oomman said. “If you don’t think you stand a chance of getting the scholarship, be wary about [using] your time when you’re applying to scholarships wisely.”

On the other hand, Sazykin encourages students to just apply for the scholarships regardless.

“Give it a shot. I mean, you miss all the shots you don’t take,” Sazykin said. “So just go out there, find some applications, write them to the best of your ability and you’re sure to land something.”