Jill Pestana, a graduate of the Class of 2008 at Tehachapi High School, has been selected by the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center’s Employee Exchange Council to receive the 2008 Harold J. Walker Memorial Scholarship award.
The $6,000 scholarship award will be disbursed in increments of $1,500 per calendar year within a five-year period.
Pestana is the daughter of Mark and Karen Pestana of Tehachapi, who attended the presentation of the scholarship to their daughter in early August at NASA Dryden. Mark Pestana is a research pilot and project manager at the NASA field center on Edwards Air Force Base.
Pestana, who graduated second in her class of 342 at Tehachapi High School in June, will attend California State University, Long Beach this fall, majoring in physics. With a grade point average of 4.267, she was salutatorian of her high school graduating class. Among other interests, she lists music as one she will pursue while attending college.
NASA Dryden Employee Exchange Council scholarships are named for former Dryden employees, with honorees selected on a rotating basis. Walker, who retired from the center in 1979, served as aerodynamics branch chief and was associated with the X-15, XB-70, lifting bodies, supercritical wing and oblique wing projects.
Funds for the scholarships come from various Dryden Employee Exchange Council activities, including proceeds from vending machine sales, and from endowments left to the center.
PHOTO EDITORS: A high-resolution photo to support this release is available for downloading from the NASA Dryden web site at: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/newsphotos/index.html
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