Longtime San Diego educator Summer Girgis will never forget what it felt like to struggle as a student. That memory drives her commitment to help others through a scholarship fund she created that, over the past decade, has awarded more than $50,000 – an investment that has transformed students’ lives and strengthened communities.
“My family was not in a position to pay for me to go to college,” says Summer. “I had to take out loans, rely on a Pell Grant and the federal work-study program, and I later worked at a high school where students aren’t able to afford college, either. This just seems like the right thing to do.”
Her Students Helping Students Scholarship is part of SDF’s Community Scholarship Program and supports local students who combine strong academics, financial need and a track record of giving back. Since 1997, SDF’s scholarship program has distributed almost $60 million to more than 15,400 students, three out of four of whom are the first in their family to attend college.
Supporting a New Generation
A Seattle native, Summer moved with her family to Florida in high school, earned her bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Central Florida, and later a master’s in K-12 education from Cal State Fullerton. She began teaching biology in Orlando before relocating to San Diego, where she spent the next 11 years teaching science at Hoover High School and Wilson Middle School in City Heights – one of the state’s most diverse and underserved communities.
After leaving the classroom, Summer joined the University of San Diego, mentoring graduate students preparing to become middle and high school science teachers. Now pursuing a Ph.D. in social justice in education at USD, she continues to stay connected through a community advisory committee on special education for the San Diego Unified School District.
Teaming With SDF
Summer’s introduction to SDF came when a friend working with the Foundation invited her to help review scholarship applications. “I loved that so many generous people were helping so many deeply deserving students in the community,” she says.
Then came an idea: “I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be great to have high school students read these applications so that when it was their time to apply for college or a college scholarship, they would have the knowledge and background of what committees were looking for?’”
That insight led her to establish Students Helping Students in tandem with SDF in 2017. Each year, a committee of up to 21 high school freshmen and sophomores, and a smaller group of adult volunteers, review applications and award two students $2,000 per year for up to two years.
There have been exceptions. In 2020, during the pandemic, every one of the 10 applicants received support. “There was such a need during COVID,” recalls Summer. “We just thought there isn’t an applicant who wasn’t in need, so let’s just go ahead and help everyone out.”
To date, 20 students have been awarded a total of $50,000 through the fund.
Grateful Recipients
One of them is Chiara Curnow, a graduate of Fallbrook High School who excelled in dance, track and field, and diving while volunteering as a Sunday school teacher and helping build loft homes for families in Ensenada, Mexico.
Summer’s scholarship – and another SDF-managed award, the Ray and Mary Bell Memorial Scholarship – helped Chiara attend Point Loma Nazarene University. She graduated in 2024 and is now enrolled at the University of San Diego Hahn School of Nursing and Health Sciences. A brother, also an SDF scholarship recipient, graduated from California Baptist University College of Nursing. Their parents, in a letter to Summer, detailed how their children’s dreams of going to college were placed in serious doubt because of the family’s financial constraints. “This is where you stepped in, and became part of the ‘village’ of organizations that made our children’s dreams possible. Because of generous scholarship donations, our children were able to afford attendance at the universities they had worked so very hard to earn acceptance from.”
Their gratitude inspired them to donate to SDF’s Community Scholarship Program, helping future students pursue their own degrees.
A Helping Hand
Summer’s generosity goes beyond Students Helping Students. She’s also contributed to SDF San Diego Flood Response Fund, supporting residents in Southeast San Diego after devastating 2024 storms, as well as SDF partners like the Barrio Logan College Institute and the Center for Community Solutions.
Despite her extensive involvement, Summer remains humble. “I’m not solely responsible, by any stretch. The students who are volunteering their time are just as responsible as I am.”
Her message to others is simple: you don’t need deep pockets to make a difference.
“Anybody can do something like this,” she says. “The San Diego Foundation is really great at working with donors to set up a scholarship at even lower amounts.”
