text: Daughter of Marine Gunnery Sgt. Leonard Heiselt, speaks at the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation's ceremony at Camp Pendleton. - The San Diego Union-Tribune
  Local Marine children receive scholarships
  Hayley Heiselt, daughter of Camp Pendleton Marine Gunnery Sgt. Leonard Heiselt, speaks at the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation's ceremony at Camp Pendleton.
  Nearly 40 children of Marines from area military bases received scholarships from the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation during a recognition ceremony at Camp Pendleton in late July. The foundation is giving out $6.6 million in scholarships to 2,194 Marine children across the country for the 2014-15 academic year, starting this Fall. Of the 64 scholarships awarded to children from San Diego area bases, 37 went to children of Marines at Camp Pendleton and Mira Mar.
  The ceremony's student speaker, Haley Heiselt, attended Mary Fay Pendleton Elementary School while her father, Gunnery Sgt. Leonard Heiselt, was stationed at Camp Pendleton.
  Heiselt said that her father's 21 years in the Marine Corps led her on her path to becoming a nuclear engineer for the Navy after she graduates.
  "My father's military occupation specialty was machinist and more than likely that's where I get most of my mechanical aptitude," Heislet said. "Growing up I enjoyed taking things apart and learning what made them work. This is what led me to choose to major in mechanical engineering."
  Heislet, a junior at California State Polytechnic University, is an executive board member of the American Indians in Science and Engineering Society and an advocate of Project Lead the Way, a nonprofit that provides science, technology, engineering and math programs to students in elementary through high school. She worked as intern last summer at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach.
  Following in the footstpes of her father and grandfathers, Heiselt is set on a career in the Navy.
  "I come from a family with a strong military background and history of serving their country. My grandfather Jerry served a tour in Vietnam while he was in the Army and my grandfather Leonard served on the Navy's first nuclear powered submarine.
  Since its establishment more than half a century ago, the Marine Corp Scholarhsip Foundation has given out nearly $90 million in scholarships.
  "Haley, like all our scholarship recipients, represents the incredible dedication and work ethic that our Marine and Navy Corpsmen instill in their children," said Margaret Davis, the foundation's president and CEO.