Santa Barbara High’s Mason Lender is Scholar-Athlete of the Year

As the top student in a class of 523 at Santa Barbara High, Mason Lender knows a thing or two about being No. 1.

He’s a four-year varsity tennis player and a captain with a sparkling 4.96 GPA, he’s a member of the National Honor Society, he speaks fluent Spanish and he’s a published author of a book titled “Eyes for Success: A Story About the Importance of Early Vision Screening.”

All those achievements and more made him the obvious choice to be the Dons’ Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table.

He’s volunteered for numerous organizations and is currently taking AP Calculus BC, AP English Literature and AP Economics. He’s going to Yale University when he plans to study economics and Data Science.

“The bar just keeps getting raised for our Scholar-Athletes as far as resumes go,” said presenter and award sponsor Marc Gamberdella. “I think we’re going to be called Ivy League West pretty soon.

Lender won the Harriet Miller Youth Leadership Scholarship Award and is an AP Scholar with Distinction, a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, National Hispanic Honor Recognition Program Scholar and is working toward a Computer Science Academy Master’s Certificate.

“It’s such a great honor to receive this important award that recognizes the value of a balance between academics and athletics,” said Lender. “I do believe that each complements the other. My tennis has helped me perform better academically and my academic work has made me a better tennis player. It has been an honor playing on the Santa Barbara tennis team for four years and I’ll always look back on these years with great happiness.”