SDCEA 2025 Scholarship Winners

Sangre de Cristo Electric Association (SDCEA) is proud to announce the recipients of its 2025-26 post-high school scholarship awards. These scholarships continue the tradition of supporting local students in their pursuit of higher education or trade school, empowering them to achieve academic and career success.

Honoring Academic Excellence

The SDCEA scholarship program has awarded the following scholarships to deserving students from the local community:

• Delia Dimino from Salida High School was awarded $2,000 annually for 4 years.

12 students from 3 high schools were awarded a 1-time $2,000 scholarship:

• Buena Vista High School — Payton Crites, Macee Young, Kai Johnson, Sydney Feuerstein, Tiaya Carl, Ava Mueller, Cora DeWalt, and Mason Barnaby.
• Salida High School — Brennan King, Trinity Bertolino, and Raeann Shively.
• Cotopaxi School — Erika Loyo
• Chandler Smethers received a 1-time $2,000 employee-dependent scholarship.
• Bridget Dawson of Buena Vista High School earned a 1-time $1,000 scholarship from Basin Electric Power Cooperative.
• Kaia Trever from Salida High School and Autumn Wingo from Buena Vista High School each received $500 from Tri-State Generation and Transmission, plus a $500 match from SDCEA.

For years, the SDCEA scholarship program has served as a crucial part of our community’s efforts to empower future generations. These scholarships allow talented young individuals to pursue their dreams of higher education with less financial burden.

SDCEA’s community giving programs are fully funded through generous SDCEA members who voluntarily agree to round up their monthly bill to the next dollar through the Power of Change program, grants and donations from SDCEA’s business partners, and donated and unclaimed capital credits. Funding does not come from members’ regular electricity bills or the SDCEA general fund.

“Congratulations to all our scholarship recipients this year,” CEO Gary Kelly said. Through this program, we hope to inspire and support the bright minds of tomorrow as they pursue their higher education and career aspirations. We are deeply committed to investing in our community’s future by helping these students achieve their dreams.”

For more information about SDCEA’s scholarship programs or community giving initiatives, visit our Community page.