The Morongo Band of Mission Indians has a Rodney T. Matthews Jr. Memorial Scholarship Program which provides scholarships to California tribal members attending universities throughout the United States. Three students received 2026 Rodney T. Matthews scholarships including both Pojas twins from the La Jolla Indian Reservation in Pauma Valley.
“I’m extremely grateful that I got it,” Mary Pojas said.
“I truly can’t explain how grateful I am for it,” Nusun Pojas said.
The Pojas twins are now 19. Both are currently sophomores at San Diego State University. Mary is 15 minutes older than Nusun. They are primarily of Luiseno descent with some Kumeyaay ancestry. They moved to the La Jolla Indian Reservation as infants after the October 2007 wildfires.
Both twins played field hockey and basketball for Valley Center High School. California Indigenous Athletes, which consists of members of various San Diego County tribes, has a flag football program and both twins participated in that sport.
The Morongo Indian Reservation is in Riverside County east of Banning and encompasses nearly 40,000 acres. The Rodney T. Mathews Jr. Memorial Scholarship provides four awards of $10,000 apiece to support full-time college students who are enrolled members of a California tribe. The scholarships are granted on a yearly basis if funds are available. Each award is for a 12-month period and renewable for a second year contingent upon demonstration of exceptional progress. Undergraduate students must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.75, and recipients must complete 60 hours of community service with a designated California Indian Community Agency. Although the student must be from a California tribe the university does not need to be in California.
“It gave me a lot of motivation to keep doing good at school,” Nusun said. “It’s a very good way to create that motivation.”
Both twins are majoring in American Indian Studies at San Diego State. Mary desires to work professionally in tribal law and to become a member of the La Jolla Tribal Council. Nusun has a business and marketing focus for her major and would like to return to the community and develop accessible health services for the La Jolla Tribe. Both are utilizing their earlier athletic activity as participants for their community service; they are program aides for the Inter-Tribal Sports program operated by San Diego State. Nusun is also on the Youth Council of the La Jolla Tribe.
Mary noted that the twins have two other sisters in college, so the scholarships provide financial relief for the other two sisters as well. “The scholarship helped me and my sisters so much,” she said.
“I’ll always be grateful for the scholarship because I truly don’t know what I’d do without it,” Nusun said. “It helped me tremendously with my education.”
