The Donald A. Strauss Public Service Scholarship Foundation, established as a memorial to the late Don Strauss of Newport Beach and now designed to award $10,000 scholarships to at least 14 California college juniors annually, has announced that among the foundation's new group of recipients is Occidental College student Nina Braynina.

The Strauss scholarships fund public-service projects that the students have proposed and will carry out during their senior year.

Braynina, who grew up in Tarzana, will film an informational video documenting the work of volunteer organizations in post-Katrina New Orleans as an effort to inform and mobilize college students, and ultimately pressure policy change.

Don Strauss demonstrated a strong, life-long commitment to public service and education, reflected by his serving 10 years on the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board, and 12 years on the Newport Beach City Council, including one as mayor. He also founded summer internships in Washington, D.C., for students at Cornell University, Stanford University, the University of Rhode Island, the California Institute of Technology and Harvey Mudd College, and he endowed scholarships at Stanford, U.C. Irvine and Harvey Mudd. He died in 1995 at the age of 79.

Strauss' widow, Dorothy M.R. Strauss, established the foundation in January of 1997 as a "tribute to the vision, ideals and leadership of Donald A. Strauss." In its first year, the foundation board invited 10 universities to nominate up to three students each for Strauss scholarships, with the board making the final selection of the 10 winners.

Dorothy Strauss saw her vision for the Foundation realized--she phoned each of the 10 first-year winners to notify them personally-- before she passed away in October of 1997 at the age of 83.

In the second year, the foundation was able to broaden its reach and award 15 $10,000 scholarships, and now gives no fewer than 14 each year.

This new group represents the foundation's tenth year of awarding such scholarships, and like their counterparts in the past, all of these recipients have extensive records of community and public service, as well as a demonstrated desire to "make a difference."

CONTACT: Nina Braynina (818) 744-4307
Duncan Strauss (561) 746-6115
Nancy S. Tietge (760) 945-7666
www.straussfoundation.org