Sterling Franklin and the Morris S. Smith Foundation
Dr. Elias Picazo Endowed Scholarship Fund
About Sterling Franklin
Sterling Franklin attended Westchester High School (in the Los Angeles Unified School District, near the Los Angeles International Airport), graduating in 1964. He earned his B.A. degree in Political Science at Stanford in 1968. He gained his teaching credential from USC in 1969 and taught 10th grade Geography and 12th grade Civics at Morningside High School in Inglewood, California, from 1970 to 1972, and he earned his Master of Science in Secondary Education degree (M.S.Ed.) in 1970 from USC. He earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.) law degree from Loyola Law School (Los Angeles) in 1975. He earned his Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) degree from USC in 1976. He has worked for non-profit organizations and practiced law. In 1993, he became a Trustee of the Morris S. Smith Foundation when it was established by his friend, Morris S. Smith, enabling him to support various charities and educational institutions, including Shafter High School.
About the Dr. Elias Picazo Endowed Scholarship Fund
Establishment: Sterling Franklin met Dr. Elias Picazo at a formal dinner at the USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute in February, 2025, where he learned about Dr. Picazo’s background growing up in Shafter, his amazing educational journey from Shafter High School to earning his Ph.D. at UCLA and doing post-doctoral work at Harvard, and his outstanding career as a research chemist. Sterling was very impressed with Dr. Picazo, so he decided to honor him by establishing the Dr. Elias Picazo Endowed Scholarship Fund in his name at Shafter High School. Sterling was a Trustee of the Morris S. Smith Foundation, so in May, 2025, he donated from the Morris S. Smith Foundation a $10,000 Vodaphone Group corporate bond that will pay out interest income of $512.50 per year for many years. The semi-annual interest payments on the Vodaphone bond and will be used by Shafter High School to give out one Dr. Elias Picazo Scholarship Award each spring.
Purpose: The Dr. Elias Picazo Endowed Scholarship Fund was established for three purposes: a.) To honor the outstanding educational achievements of Dr. Elias Picazo, the 2009 Valedictorian and Honors Graduate of Shafter High School, who went on to earn his Bachelor of Science degree, with the Dean’s Honor and Chancellor’s Scholar distinction, with a double major in Chemistry and Mathematics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2013; to earn his Ph.D. in Chemistry, with various dissertation awards and fellowships, from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2018; and to conduct postdoctoral studies at Harvard University from 2017 to 2022, thus providing an excellent role model for current Shafter High School students. b.) To provide a Dr. Elias Picazo Scholarship monetary award each year to one graduating student at Shafter High in order to provide financial aid for that student to go on to study at a college or university. c.) To encourage alumni and friends of Shafter High School to consider donating to the Dr. Elias Picazo Endowed Scholarship Fund and/or establishing and donating to similar endowed scholarship funds to benefit Shafter High School students who want to go on to study at colleges or universities after they graduate from Shafter High School.
Recipients
2025
Linette Barajas
