Harbor senior reaps award

Michael Miller

Alyson O’Desky, a senior at Newport Harbor High School, prefers that

her friends call her Aly. But with all the certificates she is

racking up this year, she may have to get used to seeing her full

name in print.

This week, O’Desky was named one of the four finalists for the

Irvine Co. 2005 Student Leadership Award.

At a ceremony Wednesday at the Clubhouse at Pelican Hill, the

Irvine Co. awarded O’Desky $10,000 in scholarship funds. The senior,

who belongs to her school’s Model United Nations and National Honors

Society and is preparing to launch her own literary magazine this

summer, plans to attend Wellesley College in the fall.

“It was so great,” O’Desky said after the ceremony. “It was a

scholarship that really meant something, because I earned it on

merit. It really was me as a three-dimensional person, instead of a

two-dimensional piece of paper. It wasn’t just some resume I sent

in.”

O’Desky went through a lengthy interview process with the Irvine

Co. this spring, after her school nominated her for the student

leadership award. The Irvine Co. covers 15 high schools in the Irvine

Ranch area -- which comprises parts of Irvine, Laguna Beach, Newport

Beach, Costa Mesa, Orange and Tustin -- and asks each campus to

nominate one male and one female student.

Each of the 30 initial nominees received a $2,000 scholarship.

When O’Desky passed through the first round of interviews, the judges

selected her as one of eight semifinalists, netting her an additional

$1,000. On Wednesday, she received the finalist prize of $7,000,

bringing her total scholarship to $10,000.

The other three finalists this year were Alex Baker of Foothill

High School, Max Eulenstein of University High School and Justin Saks

of Woodbridge High School.

“Alyson just has such great charisma,” said Irvine Co. spokesman

John Christensen. “All these kids are put through a rigorous process,

but they can’t just be smart and sociable. They have to have

exceptional skills, too, especially when they’re in a class of their

peers. But Alyson has all that, and she was an outstanding student

leader.”