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At a luncheon last week, the Kiwanis Club of Berkeley awarded 12 local graduating high school students with $32,000 in scholarships. 

Rebecca Falik, who graduated from Berkeley High School in June, received the $10,000 George Whitehead Scholarship, which she will be using to attend Yale in the fall. 

Falik looked into several scholarships but said she wasn’t expecting to win this one from the Kiwanis Club. 

“This one seemed to be up my ally,” she said. “I was very pleasantly surprised.” 

The 11 other winners, who each received a $2,000 scholarship, are Angela Rothschild from Aerosmith; Elizabeth Mullarkey, Richard Pilara and Danski Perez from St. Mary’s High School; Victor Tsai and Andrea Gottlieb from Albany High School; Benjamin Hoss, Gary Yu, Jenny McNight and Amy Heidersbach from El Cerrito High School; and Eleanor Kung from Berkeley High School. 

The Kiwanis Club began issuing scholarships almost 10 years ago, and the number of students that receive the awards has grown from three to 12. The money comes from interest from a memorial fund as well as contributions from club members. 

“Community service is a big aspect of the awards,” Kiwanis Club member and scholarship chair Sharon Silveira said. 

“All these kids have gone out of their way to do community work. They are really incredible in what they did.”