Recent Provo High School graduate Kathlene Ornano let out an overjoyed "squeak" when she learned she had won a $3,500 scholarship through Jiffy Lube's "What Drives You?" essay contest.

"Even if it were for five dollars, I still would have screamed the same," said the Brigham Young University-bound Ornano, who had applied for several scholarships, but came up empty-handed each time. With college around the corner, she finally had a little money to work with.

Ornano's winning essay, she says, "is pure me. It's about my dreams, what I want to do in the future." Students were asked to write 500 words expressing their life's ambitions. Eight winners statewide were selected from more than 2,300 entries.

Ornano wrote about her love of cultures, languages and people. A daughter of Peruvian immigrants, she grew up speaking both Spanish and English and developed a passion for languages. She studied American Sign Language at Provo High and hopes to become an interpreter for the deaf. She plans to major in anthropology, with a socio-cultural emphasis, and minor in international development and Arabic.

Yes, Arabic.

It's another language Ornano loves.

The teen helped bring Arabic to her school. When Ornano's sign language teacher, Audrey Bastian, told her the National Middle East Language Resource Center wanted to help Provo High start an Arabic program, Ornano was thrilled. She had taken an Arabic course in junior high, preferring it over the other option: law enforcement. Now she had a chance to continue learning the language.

But Provo High administrators weren't sure if students would be interested in Arabic. Trying to convince them, Ornano, then a freshman, started a petition and gathered signatures from her classmates. It worked. The next year, 10 students signed up to study the language. Each year, the class has grown. Bastian expects 20-25 students to enroll next year.

"Arabic is really hard," Ornano said. "That's why I love it. It's such a challenge."

Two years ago, Bastian took Ornano and three other Arabic students to Israel to try out their language skills among native speakers and get a taste of the culture. Global Connections and Exchange Program funded the three-week adventure.

"It was an experience I wouldn't trade for the world," Ornano said.

Bastian said Ornano made the most of the trip, chatting it up with people every chance she got.

"She a teacher's dream because I teach languages, and she loves languages," Bastian said. "When we were in Palestinian villages, she'd go down the street and she'd stop and talk with people. She wanted to interact and talk. People just loved her because she was so open and so friendly."

Ornano is also studying Italian on her own, and next she plans to learn French, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. Learning languages, she says, is her hobby.

"Some people have sports, I have my languages," who Ornano, who also has practical plans for her multilingual abilities.

She wants to earn a master's degree in public administration and eventually work for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides humanitarian assistance to people worldwide.

"I want to teach young women and young men around the world about diversity and how every individual is unique in their own special way, regardless of their race or living circumstance," wrote Ornano in her essay.

ndicou@sltrib.com —

'What drives you?'

The Jiffy Lube "What Drives You?" Scholarship Program was created to help high school students headed to college and technical or professional programs and is sponsored by neighborhood Jiffy Lube owners. The scholarship awards are not based on a student's GPA or other standard qualifying criteria. Rather, each student was allowed to express his or her "inner drive" and personal ambition.

Source: www.yourturn2apply.com/utah.htm