Meet Truckee Donner Land Trust’s First Scholarship Recipient

As the Truckee Donner Land Trust grows and evolves, a new way in which our board of directors has chosen to contribute to our community is with a college scholarship for a local student. The Land Trust worked with Truckee Tahoe Community Foundation to administer the scholarship.

Lizbeth Zaragoza Frias of North Tahoe High School was selected by a committee of board members Jean Snuggs, Jennifer Pearsall Kobert and Dan Simmons along with Director of Philanthropy Kate Frankfurt for a scholarship of $1,000 per year for four years.

Lizbeth, a cheerleader and artist, will be the first in her family to attend college.

“My plans for college are to learn and work hard to achieve a career I love,” Lizbeth said. “I also plan on getting a degree in graphic design.”

Art and creativity are a major part of Lizbeth’s life, an escape into another world and a way to express her feelings, she said.

“Art is my comfort place, it’s where I feel most myself and able to show who I am,” Lizbeth said.

Truckee Donner Land Trust had the difficult task of selecting from a wide range of impressive local students, reading 65 applications and narrowing it to 12, but Lizbeth’s care for the outdoors aligned with our work.

“Our world is very precious and beautiful,” Lizbeth said. “I am lucky to live in the Tahoe-Truckee region where I can see all this from my window. Nature is important to me and I want others to have the chance to see what I see, and for generations after me to see how beautiful our world really is. I want to try to keep our world as beautiful as it is, or even better than right now.”