Bernardo Acosta

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For a bright high school student without the means to pay for college, winning a Dorrance Scholarship is a little like winning a lottery.

Seven Pima County students hit the jackpot recently, each winning up to $45,000 in financial aid to attend an Arizona university for four years.

All are the first members of their families to attend college, one of the requirements of the program.

Six of the winners for the 2008-09 school year are from Tucson:

● Bernardo Acosta, Sunnyside High School;

● Armando Cienfuegos, University High School;

● Brianna Ezrre, Salpointe Catholic High School;

● Casandra Larkins, Sahuaro High School;

● Jesse McCain, Sabino High School;

● Stephanie Smead, University High School.

Also chosen this year was Johnathan Siquieros, a student at Baboquivari High School on the Tohono O'odham Reservation in Sells.

Larkins and Smead plan to attend Northern Arizona University this fall. The others will attend the University of Arizona.

Besides tuition assistance, recipients have opportunities for international travel and cultural-enrichment experiences.

In return, they must live on campus during their freshman year, meet monthly with fellow scholars and perform volunteer service in the community.

They also must complete at least 12 credit hours per semester and maintain a 3.0 grade-point average.

"This program affords students with financial need the opportunity to study at a university, study and travel abroad, and graduate without debt," said James Hensley, director of Dorrance Scholarship Programs at the Arizona Community Foundation, the Phoenix non-profit agency that administers the prizes.

The scholarships, launched in 1999 by Phoenix-area philanthropists and UA alumni Bennett and Jacquie Dorrance, aim to create well-rounded citizens, Hensley said in a news release on Monday.

"These are kids who will give back to their communities for the rest of their lives," he said.