Local Student Awarded Trustees' Scholarship from Foothill College

Heidy Boch of Mountain View had dreams of moving to southern California and working in the film industry. She planned to attend a four-year university with a strong film production program after graduating from in 2010.

When tragedy struck her family in 2009 with the sudden death of her older brother, however, Boch decided to stay in the Bay Area and complete her general education at first. Attending community college allows her to continuing living with her parents for a little longer.

She recently completed her first year at Foothill last month, and hopes to pursue her dream of becoming a film producer by transferring to either the University of California-Los Angeles or Chapman University in Orange, CA after next year.

Boch is a strong student, and her hard work and top grades have not gone unnoticed by the staff at Foothill College. The fact community college district’s board of trustees recently selected her as one of only two students each year who are awarded its Trustees Scholarships. This year’s other winner was Khalid Rasti, a De Anza College student from Fremont.

"Heidy and Khalid are outstanding students with great futures ahead of them,'' said Foothill-De Anza Community College District Board of Trustees President Pearl Cheng. "Like so many of our students, they have had to overcome obstacles to reach their educational goals and have worked hard to distinguish themselves. We are proud to have them attend our colleges."

Boch said she attended a scholarship workshop last year that led her to apply for the Trustees Scholarship.

“At the workshop, someone spoke about what you can do to apply for scholarships, and one tip was to look into scholarships offered by the school you go to,” Boch explained. She then looked online and found information about the Trustees Scholarship on the Foothill website. She applied for it right away.

Boch and her family were excited when she was named this year’s winner from Foothill. The $1,500 scholarship will go a long way, she said.

“I calculated it, and I think it should (add up to) around full-time tuition for a whole year, or three quarters, so that will really help my family,” Boch explained. “And if there’s anything left over, I’ll use it for textbooks.”

She's setting her sights on UCLA and Chapman, which have strong film production programs.

“I studied film production at Los Altos High and I really liked it. I learned how to write scripts, and film things, and organize storyboards and stuff,” she said.

It would be hard for Boch to pin down one particular type of film she is most interested in creating, she said.

“I‘m really interested in narrative film writing, but I also really love documentaries, and I’m also really interested in experimental filmmaking,” she said. “I’m pretty much interested in everything.”

Boch and her parents, Jose and Maria Boch, live in Mountain View. Maria is a housekeeper and Jose is a baker for Whole Foods in Los Altos.

“My parents are great" Boch said. "They’re very supportive.”