Casa Grande student lands ‘incredible’ STEM scholarship

Casa Grande High School senior Claire Killian got thrown a curve ball on the field at a San Francisco Giants game last week when she was surprised with the news that she’d be receiving a Pacific Gas and Electric Company scholarship worth up to $100,000 to help pave the way for her engineering career.

The 17-year-old thought she’d be joining the finalists for one of PG&E’s top scholarships for a behind the scenes tour of AT&T Park before the Giants faced off with the Chicago Cubs May 20, but when she arrived with her parents, she found she was the only student at the stadium.

As she walked out onto the field during batting practice, the team’s mascot, Lou Seal, brought out an enormous check while PG&E Vice President Deb Affonsa shared the news that Killian had been chosen as a recipient for the company’s “Better Together STEM” scholarship, with an annual allotment of $20,000 for up to five years.

“It was an incredible experience,” said Killian, who plans to attend UCLA in the fall to study civil engineering. “At first I didn’t know what was going on, but it was surreal, and my parents were really happy. … Once it started to hit me how much money that was, I knew it was incredible to have that part of my college education covered.”

Killian, who boasts a 4.58 GPA, was one of 10 Northern and Central California students chosen from a pool of more than 4,000 applicants to receive the scholarship intended to bolster interest in science, technology, engineering and math. Winners were chosen based on a combination of “community leadership, personal triumph financial need and academic achievement” according to a press release from the company, which has funded $4 million in STEM scholarships.

“Students like Claire are part of a really bright future,” PG&E spokeswoman Hailey Wilson said. “These are the students who are really going to be bringing in new innovations ... It’s important to invest in them.”

Killian, who said she’s “always been interested in buildings,” plans to obtain a master’s degree in civil or structural engineering and pursue a career as a licensed engineer working with everything from residential to commercial buildings.

Marian and Eldon Killian adopted Claire from Vietnam when she was 6 months old, and Marian Killian recollected that her daughter, who’s also the captain of Casa Grande’s girls basketball team, a peer mentor and a member of the National Honors Society, began to show her diverse talents at a young age.

Marian Killian said her daughter had an early interest in problem solving and tinkering with Legos and Lincoln Logs, and by the time she was 3, she was completing complex puzzles with hundreds of pieces.

Killian has also received four other scholarships this year, her mother said, which will offset the estimated $34,062 cost for an academic year of tuition and associated expenses at UCLA.

“She’s worked so hard and she just is so alive with learning – she loves to learn and she has always been that way, and so we’re really thrilled that this makes going to college really much easier,” Marian Killian said.

Rick Pillsbury, who has been Killian’s coach for her two years on Casa Grande’s academic decathlon team as well as her teacher in advanced physics and calculus classes, described her as a dedicated student who’s a top achiever with a big heart.

“She’s a hard worker and also gifted intellectually. … She’s going to have a great career wherever she ends up,” he said.

(Contact Hannah Beausang at hannah.beausang@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @hannahbeausang.)