The California Junior Scholarship Federation DiGiovanna Memorial Award Essay Contest was established in memory of long-time CJSF adviser / CSF-CJSF Board Member Joanna DiGiovanna.
Navya Kaka has been recognized as the 2025-2026 DiGiovanna Award South Region Recipient for the exceptional writing of her essay and her contribution to her community.
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Navya Kaka – Chapter 1178 Day Creek Intermediate School
Adviser Yvette Schemenauer
Principal Jordyn Vander Laan
Etiwanda School District
An active member of the Rancho Cucamonga City Youth Leaders Navya worked on initiative last year to bring more mental health resources to middle schools. Navya wrote “I wanted to focus on adolescent mental health because I saw the difference between the resources high schools receive compared to what we had in middle school, and I knew I had to balance the scale.” Navya presented her proposal to Mayor Dennis Michael and the City Council.
As a result of Navya’s hours of research and work developing her proposal the city received a grant from Kaiser Permanente for mental health services at her school, Day Creek Intermediate.
Although she will be moving on to high school at the end of this school year Navya is proud of the work she did and hopes that students will take advantage of the mental health services offered.
The DiGiovanna Memorial Award Essay Contest was established in memory of long-time CJSF adviser / CSF-CJSF Board Member Joanna DiGiovanna.
Mrs. DiGiovanna was a very dedicated teacher and CJSF adviser at Piute Middle School in Lancaster who was passionate about the CJSF members in her chapter as well as throughout California. She later served as a volunteer on the State Board of Directors for eight years as CJSF Vice President (South Central) and CJSF Registrar until her passing in June 2016.
California Junior Scholarship Federation 7th and 8th grade members are asked to write an essay that shares how one community service experience has impacted them personally. In addition, they are asked to suggest a service that could benefit their community or school in the future.
Each year there is one award Recipient in each region; each winning recipient will receive a $100 award.