Jennifer C. Gonzales, Serena Gonzalez, America Loya, Sahr Kamachi Mbawa and Everardo Urena each received a scholarship for $1,000 to apply toward college or other training programs. All the winners were invited to a May 8 luncheon, where they shared their stories of turning their lives around and achieving academic excellence.

The Turnaround Scholarship was designed to recognize these efforts and provide these students with an opportunity to further their education.

"These are students who when they were freshman and sophomores were struggling," said the area representative for the Willow Glen High School Board of Trustees, Carol Myers.

Some were dropouts or were pregnant but made a choice to turn their lives around, Myers said.

All of the winners managed to change their lives for the better by their senior year of high school.

One story that particularly touched Myers was Mbawa's.

"He's been in this country since 1999, and his father spent 10 years trying to get here," Myers said.

Mbawa is originally from Sierra Leone, a country that has been embroiled in a civil war since 1991. The war between the government and the Revolutionary United Front has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

"He's a remarkable young man," said Willow Glen High School Vice Principal Carmen Mahood. "This child watched most of his family being slaughtered with machetes."

But despite this trauma, Mahood said Mbawa is still "happy and buoyant."

Mbawa started out not knowing any English. But he was a quick learner and has done well in school. He has also focused his energy on art, taking an advanced placement course.

"He's a fabulous artist," Mahood said. "He does very powerful work."

Though Mbawa was accepted by UC-Santa Cruz, Mahood said his father determined that Mbawa should strengthen his English writing skills at De Anza Community College first.

"He's had a particularly moving and interesting journey," Mahood said.

There were many other moving stories from students who had survived adversity.

Mahood recalled Jennifer C. Gonzalez as being a "pretty scary little ninth-grader" who started high school as a gang member. Gonzalez eventually sat down with her father and told him she wanted to change. Her father began supervising her more closely, Mahood said, and now Gonzalez hangs out with a completely different crowd.

Gonzalez will be starting San Francisco State University in the fall.

"She's the first in her family to go to college," Mahood said.

And then there was Everardo Urena, who returned to Mexico and missed a year of school.

"His family fell apart at the beginning of his high school career," Mahood said.

But when Urena returned, Mahood said, he was determined to graduate with his class. Being a year behind, he took summer school and college-level courses while supporting himself as a body piercer in order to graduate on time.

Urena will be graduating in June and has a job with the Central County Occupational Center.

The Turnaround Scholarship started about eight years ago, when Sunrisers Jim Crownover and Sal Caruso received a $10,000 grant from Applied Materials.

At that time, students received only $250. But the next year the scholarship was increased to $500.

How well a student improves academically is part of the selection process. The school nominates the students for the scholastic award. The Kiwanis reviews the applicants and ranks them accordingly.

"We rate them based on scholastic turnaround," said Willow Glen Sunriser Dorothy Crownover.

Many of the students had GPAs of 0.01 and slowly pulled them up, she said.

Besides gauging how much grades have improved, the organization also rates the applicants on community involvement. Whether the student is in financial need can be a tiebreaker.

"We try to reach the kids that don't qualify for normal scholarships," Crownover said.

Usually these students have "lost too much time with drugs or babies," she added.

This year the Kiwanis received 60 applicant nominations from high schools in the San Jose Unified School District, but the organization was only able to award 32 scholarships because of a lack of funds.

In recent years, the scholarship has increased to $1,000 a student due to a contribution by the Leo M. Shortino Family Foundation.

This year's winners have the option of applying for a follow-up scholarship if there is an ongoing financial need. But the applicants have to maintain good grades, with a GPA equivalent to what they had when they first won the award.

"It's nice when the community recognizes students and chooses those who might be at risk," said Willow Glen High School Principal Elaine Farace.