Danville Student Awarded $36K Clean Energy Scholarship

Announcement, photo submitted by Proton OnSite:

A talented Danville high school senior has won a $36,000 scholarship from the Proton OnSite Scholarship and Innovation Program and its entrepreneur benefactor Tom Sullivan.

“I’m speechless. I wasn’t sure if I could win the scholarship, because there are so many bright students out there so this is very exciting,” said Mayia Vranas, a senior at Monte Vista High School. Mayia plans to use the Proton OnSite Scholarship to help her gain an undergraduate degree in physics at UC Berkeley.

Mayia was surprised by a phone call to her school from Sullivan on the morning of Thursday, April 16 informing her that she’d won the Scholarship prize.

An independent panel of judges chose Mayia to be one of three winners of the 2015 Proton OnSite Scholarship not only for her incredible academic record but also for her lengthy extra-curricular resume, which includes recently presenting her independent physics research at a Stanford Pre-Collegiate Science Conference.

Mayia was also chosen to receive a Proton OnSite Scholarship award because of her admirable goals. She wishes to follow in the footsteps of her physicist father and enter into the profession. She eventually wants to earn a doctorate and become a physics professor at a leading research university.

“I want to use this scholarship to help me become a physicist,” added Mayia. “My dad is a physicist and he taught me so much about how the universe works. I want to be able to go and do my own research and add to the world of knowledge.”

The Proton OnSite Scholarship program, now in its sixth year, looks for the brightest individuals in the country to offer them the financial support they need to gain an undergraduate degree in science and technology.

“The Proton OnSite Scholarship was created to help fuel the future careers of our best and brightest science and technology students,” said Tom Sullivan, founder and chairman for Lumber Liquidators and chairman of Proton OnSite, the global leader in hydrogen gas generation from electrolysis. “Amazing young people like Mayia will be our future as we look for new ways to harness alternative energies. I’m delighted that my scholarship will be able to help her achieve her dreams.”

Sullivan has awarded over $2 million to 25 high school students over the past six years through the scholarship program, which is devoted to fueling the next generation of scientific innovation.

Mayia Vranas from Danville, California

Mayia is part of the Monte Vista High School Class of 2015. Her stellar academic record is coupled with an impressive extra-curricular resume. Mayia volunteers at the Reutlinger Jewish Retirement Home, and helps 5th graders to create science fair projects as a Science Alliance Mentor. She’s a member of her school’s chemistry club, plays the French horn and is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Mayia has already presented her physics research at the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Science Conference and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Nuclear Theory Session. This fall, Mayia intends to begin an undergraduate degree in physics at UC Berkeley.

Photo of Mayia Vranas alongside Monte Vista High School counselor Pat Lamson.