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OCWS Scholarship Program:

Spotlight on Enology Students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

By Damian J. Christian

OCWS funds scholarships for eight California colleges and universities, including Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO), which has one of the largest enology and viticulture programs in the country and offers a Bachelor’s of Science in wine making and viticulture.  

Earlier this summer, I had the good fortune to visit SLO for a reception and lunch with their enthusiastic scholarship recipients. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO) awarded the OCWS scholarships to five students and this article highlights some of their career journeys.

  • Stella Dowd –  a student in her fourth year was studying the business side of wine making and was excited to have participated in the previous fall harvest at a large winery.
  • Phoebe Dueltgen –  from San Jose has both parents in the wine industry and was excited to continue in their footsteps.
  • Elizabeth Hastert – from Denver, came to SLO for culinary arts inspired by the Netflix show Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Chef Samin Nosrat. But in the dorms she was attracted to enology by the enthusiasm of her friends there and was very happy to have switched majors.
  • Stella Tarantino –  a fourth-year student whose parents also attended SLO. She also participated in the previous year’s harvest at a large winery and was excited to present a vintage at the wine maker show case. 
  • Evelyn Tostado – switched to the wine business side after pursuing the plant science side of viticulture. 

All of the students were very enthusiastic about their studies and very appreciative of the OCWS scholarship support. 

Next month we will be highlighting another one of the colleges/universities supported by the OCWS Scholarship Fund. Just a friendly reminder there is always time to donate for 2025.  There are two ways to donate:

  1. Bring a check to a holiday event (December 5th) – Make your check out to OCWS (please write Scholarship Donation on the memo line and add the name of a specific school, if you want it to go to only one of the schools supported).  I will be in attendance at the holiday events and will be happy to accept your donation check.  A donation letter will be sent to you.
  2. Mail a check – Make your check out to OCWS and mail it to the OCWS office at OCWS  P.O. Box 11059  Costa Mesa, CA 92627  Attn: Scholarship Fund  A donation letter will be sent to you.
  3. Donate Online – Logon to your account at ocws.org and go to the scholarship donation page: ocws.org/product/scholarship-donations/    You can make your donation online and print a receipt for tax purposes at the same time.