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 HINTZ & BALVIN COMMUNICATIONS Date: February 2, 2010 PASADENA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES Prior to his death in December and despite his short three-year tenure at South Pasadena High School, Aydin had been a popular student leader with an outstanding academic record. He was president and founder of the South Pasadena High School Model United Nations Club and President of the school’s American Cancer Society Youth Club. He was a staff writer for the student newspaper (The Tiger) and was a representative to the South Pasadena Unified School District Board. He served as a 2009 Youth Senator for the 22nd Senatorial District. In addition to his scholastic activities, he loved to be with his friends particularly if there was dancing. “If there is dancing,” he would say, “then I will be with you.” In establishing the Aydin Salek Memorial Leadership Scholarship Fund, his parents, Hamid and Azita Salek, know that Aydin’s impact will continue to live through this legacy to other students who share Aydin’s academic achievements and leadership qualities. Contributions to the Aydin Salek Leadership Scholarship Fund can be made by sending a check payable to the Pasadena Community Foundation indicating the Salek Fund in the memo line on the check. The Foundation address is 260 South Los Robles Avenue, Suite 119, Pasadena, California 91030. Aydin’s brief tenure in this country gave him a unique appreciation for freedom and a desire to make an impact. Here is how he describes his feelings and perceptions on a college application: “I moved to South Pasadena High School in the beginning of my sophomore year. Not all, but most SPHS students have been born and lived their entire life in South Pasadena. They have attended the same elementary school, middle school and now high school. Their friendships go back 11 years and I entered their world much later. Of course I was from a different country so I was very different culturally too…I’m proud of how much the adults at the high school and around the community know me and respect me. I might have not changed anybody’s life, but I believe in this short amount of time I have managed to leave a significant impact on my community. Three years ago when I entered South Pasadena High School I finally felt at home, and I have done all I know and I can to improve my home.” “At South Pasadena High School I slowly became conscious of how I wanted to live my life. I combined my past experiences with censorship in Iran and the ocean of possibility that lay before me and I figured out that the reason I moved to America was to take advantage of the freedoms I had not had back home. Not only could I disagree with the government – in this new world I could criticize my school administration in the school newspaper and get away with it. I sat on the Board of Education with Adults and told them when they needed to reconsider some items. Opportunities that my classmates do not think are important.” # # # |
Wanting to honor the memory of their recently deceased son and keep alive his spirit of community participation and scholastic dedication, the parents of former South Pasadena student Aydin Salek have established a scholarship fund in his name with the Pasadena Community Foundation. The purposed of the fund will be to support other South Pasadena High School student leaders and/or high-achieving students of Iranian descent who have demonstrated a special interest and dedication to improving Iranian-American affairs. The first grant will be awarded to one of Aydin’s classmates graduating in June.