This week’s Wendy’s of Santa Clarita and SCVTV Student Athlete of the Week is Jaya Schultz of Canyon girls basketball. Jaya has a 3.8 GPA and while she has already accepted a basketball scholarship to Pepperdine, she expected herself to do well in school.

“My parents have always kind of stressed it,” said the 6-foot senior. “When I was a young kid they always said, ‘If you want to get into a good college you need to have good grades. We’re not going to push you. You need to have that self-motivation in you.’ It’s kind of like I’m harder on myself about grades than my parents.”

Jaya is a rare athlete who was blessed with exceptional basketball skills. That was evident when she started on varsity as a freshman and continued when she was offered her scholarship to play NCAA Division 1 hoops with the Waves. Yet she was grounded enough to know not to expect that type of opportunity.

“I never thought I’d get a scholarship,” Jaya said. “I knew that education of course is going to come before basketball. It is nice to have that basketball and school going but education is always going to come first no matter what.”

You might say Jaya is lucky to have a basketball scholarship to Pepperdine. But if you really know her you will know it has taken hard work to make her dream come true.

“Pepperdine has been my dream school ever since I was 12,” she said. “Once they were interested in me I said, why not. This is my favorite school and a great education that’s good to have on a resume.”

Her plans call for a study of business at the Malibu university.

“I think business is a good thing to have,” she said. “There’s a lot of jobs with that and some high demand. At Pepperdine they have a program where you can travel the world and go study abroad.”

Congratulations to Jaya Schultz of Canyon High School, the Wendy’s of Santa Clarita and SCVTV Student Athlete of the Week.