Sierra Pacific Power Company
Contact: Robert Sagan
Phone: (775) 834-4834

For Immediate Release

Thirty-three students from the University of Nevada, Reno; Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno; and Western Nevada Community College in Carson City will be recognized Friday, Oct. 20, as recipients of the Sierra Pacific Foundation Scholarship Program in ceremonies held at the utility's Neil Road headquarters in southeast Reno.

Additionally, a researcher from the Desert Research Institute (DRI) will be recognized as the winner of the Sierra Pacific Foundation Fellowship, a one-year, $16,000 grant, allowing him to enter into the Environmental Sciences and Health Graduate Program at UNR and the DRI, in order to pursue a master's degree in Ecological Toxicology.

Frank Stewart, a former Manogue High School valedictorian (4.0 GPA) and All-State football player, graduated earlier this year from Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt. As part of the grant he also will receive the assistance of a DRI research assistant and use of the Institute's computer and laboratory facilities.

Sierra Pacific Recognizes Scholarship, ResearchÂ- Add One It was April 1996, when Sierra Pacific and the University of Nevada, Reno formally announced a Sierra Pacific Foundation pledge of $715,000 to support a variety of educational and research programs at UNR and the DRI over a five-year period.

Among those programs were 87 scholarships valued at $2,000 each, divided among the University's College of Engineering, College of Business Administration, and the Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering.

Two weeks after the initial announcement, Sierra Pacific unveiled a separate, five-year, $75,000 scholarship program for the Northern Nevada Community College System. The program makes 150 scholarships available to the community colleges.

"We're confident these programs will provide meaningful, long-term benefits to the schools, to the students and to their families," said Sierra Pacific Power President Jeff Ceccarelli."In the case of the University of Nevada, Reno, this plan will help support the school's goal of becoming the finest small state university in America."

Sierra Pacific Foundation Scholarship Recipients 2000

Desert Research Institute Sierra Pacific Fellowship	University of Nevada, Reno	Western Nevada Community College	Truckee Meadows Community College
Frank J. Stewart	Laura A. Akers Rachel Beggs Dusty K. Casey Rocco Cataldo Christina Feliz Xiaoran Zheng Adam S. Kincaid Linda Manning Colleen McCarthy Thoren E. McDole Jeannette Kretschmer Jessica Meier Cara F. Nero Chuong T. Nguyen Dylan Robards Victoria Simcoe Erica Sufka Coral R. Taylor Jennifer Tiehm Genevieve Torres Micaela F. Vaca Lari Ann Vest	Deanna Brinkley Deborah Downey MaryKate Eaton Mary Jeffers Suzanne Lequerica	Clint Anderson Jami Earll Edith A. Hernandez Jason Lizarraga Phyllis Morales Auralie T. Woods