MENDOTA – A former Mendota High School student is giving back to the school he graduated from in 1969.

Steve Selbrede has offered up a generous donation of a $1,000 prize to award to a single physics student at MHS this school year. Selbrede is in the works to create a yearly scholarship for a Mendota High School student in the future, but wanted to start giving back now.

The student will need to be enrolled in a physics class at MHS to be eligible for the prize. Joseph Hughes, physics instructor at MHS, said that details are still being worked on of how and when to officially announce the winner of the $1,000 prize.

“The only detail we are currently still working on is how to decide the winner of the prize,” stated Hughes. “We don't want the decision to be biased so we are working on getting a standardized test or something similar for the students to take to keep our bias out of the decision.”

Hughes also said that plans include obtaining a plaque to place in the school to add the winners’ names to each year.

Selbrede loved his physics class in high school and went on to study physics in college. He attended Stanford University and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and has master’s and doctorate degrees.

Selbrede wants to give back to the school that sparked his passion to learn and his passion to pursue physics. He decided the best way to do that is to reward the top physics student from Mendota High School each year.

Selbrede currently resides in Las Vegas.