BNP Paribas More Than Doubles Number of High School Scholarships as Part of 11th Annual BNP Paribas Open Awards

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12:00 PM on Thursday, March 12

The Associated Press

NEW YORK & INDIAN WELLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 12, 2026--

BNP Paribas, Europe’s leading financial institution and one of the foremost global sponsors of tennis, today announces the expansion of its scholarship program for the Coachella Valley community. For the 11 th annual BNP Paribas Open Scholarship program, the bank will award ten grants of $20,000 to each selected high school senior. This more than doubles the number of scholarships provided in previous years and widens the program’s reach from 1 school and 4 students per year, to 4 schools and 10 students per year. The winners of the 11 th annual BNP Paribas Open Scholarships are Logan Crabtree, Stephanie Kochel, Ethan Miller and Perla Lopez Palomares from La Quinta High School, Jose Luis Palacios Morales and Evelyn Rios from Shadow Hills High School, Edgar Avila Fuentes and Isabella Partida-Lopez from Coachella Valley High School, and Sinai Beltran and Angel Diarte-Salomon from Desert Mirage High School, all located in the Coachella Valley in California and all from the graduating class of 2026.

The scholarships are granted during the BNP Paribas Open and support each student’s pursuit of higher education. Each recipient must meet stringent requirements including a strong academic record and a demonstrable commitment to tennis. Each student will be awarded a $20,000 college grant at a ceremony hosted at La Quinta High School on Thursday, March 12, and will also be recognized during an on-court presentation at the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday,March 14.

José Placido, CEO of BNP Paribas USA and CIB Americas, said: “BNP Paribas has always believed that tennis has a positive impact beyond the court. For a decade, we have been immensely proud to support high-achieving students in the Coachella Valley who display a passion for tennis. Today, to mark our 11 th Annual Scholarship Awards, we are delighted to expand this program to ten exceptional young tennis players to support them in achieving their goals and help them go from the court to college. A warm congratulations to Logan, Stephanie, Ethan, Perla, Jose, Evelyn, Edgar, Isabella, Sinai and Angel, all of whom embody the principles of commitment, tenacity and hard work.”

Peggy Michel, Assistant Tournament Director of the BNP Paribas Open, also added: “The 2026 scholarship winners demonstrate that the positive impact of tennis extends beyond the court. It is wonderful to see BNP Paribas increase the number of scholarships this year and reaffirm its commitment to supporting talented young leaders in the Coachella Valley community. Congratulations to all of our remarkable award winners for their excellent achievements in both academics and sports, and we wish you all continued success as you embark on your college careers.”

Kelly May-Vollmar, Superintendent, Desert Sands Unified School District, said: “I am so proud of the ten students who earned this year’s BNP Paribas Open Scholarship Awards through their academic success, community involvement and dedication to tennis. Congratulations to all the recipients and thank you to BNP Paribas for more than doubling the number of grants awarded and supporting more students as they pursue their high education ambitions.”

Scholarship Winner Biographies

La Quinta High School

Logan Crabtree
Logan hopes to one day pursue a career in education or psychology so that he can help people with their mental health. He has demonstrated a passion for English Literature and enrolled in challenging Language and Literature courses, where he excelled in understanding complex literary texts. In addition to being a diligent student, he is involved in the performing arts and has taken on leadership roles in his dance classes, helping to guide his peers. Logan also spent three years on the varsity tennis team and has been part of the BNP Paribas tennis program for youth.

Stephanie Kochel
Stephanie is an exceptional student who has won multiple academic awards throughout her high school career, and her extracurricular activities showcase her passion for STEM: she is the STEM Club President and the captain of her school’s National Science Bowl team. Outside of school, Stephanie is a mathematics tutor. In addition, she has shown great dedication to tennis as the girls’ varsity tennis captain at her school, where she won the Coaches’ Award in 2025. Stephanie is also active as a mentor in her community; she is a volunteer tennis teacher for children aged K-8 and helps kids build confidence through martial arts as a Taekwondo instructor.

Ethan Miller
Ethan has excelled in his academic pursuits and has spent four years honing his leadership skills in the Air Force Junior ROTC, attaining the position of Squadron Commander and overseeing 107 cadets. Ethan has won national awards because of his academics, leadership and citizenship: Airforce Association Award, Military Order of the World Wars Award and Retired Enlisted Association Award. He aims to pursue aviation in college to achieve his dream of becoming a pilot. An avid tennis player, Ethan is the captain of boys’ varsity tennis team and credits the sport with helping him build confidence.

Perla Lopez Palomares
Perla is on her school’s Honor Roll and pursues a wide variety of extracurricular activities. She is a lifeguard, a section leader in the LQHS choir, the secretary of the school’s Interact club, and volunteers as a children’s music teacher at her church. She is a dedicated tennis player who has stood out not only for her technical skill and competitive drive, but also for her leadership abilities, sportsmanship and teamwork. She has won Most Improved Player and Sportsmanship awards through her efforts on the tennis court. Perla explores her artistic side through painting, drawing, singing and creative writing.

Shadow Hills High School

Jose Luis Palacios Morales
Jose is a dedicated and hardworking student who consistently pushes himself into new academic challenges, displaying a proactive approach to learning. Outside of the classroom, he revitalized the school’s the Model United Nations program, eventually serving as the club’s president. Jose is also a tennis player and notes that the sport showed him the importance of teamwork and commitment. Jose balances grades, clubs and tennis with community service. He is a volunteer with Raices Cultura, an arts and culture non-profit in Coachella, CA; he has contributed over 100 hours of his time to the organization and demonstrated responsibility, dedication and leadership.

Evelyn Rios
Evelyn is an Honor Roll student who has excelled in rigorous courses that require a high level of critical thinking, collaboration and effort. She brings enthusiasm and positive energy to the classroom, as well as a willingness to help her peers. Evelyn has also been a mentor through her school’s LINK program, which pairs juniors and seniors with incoming freshmen to help them feel welcome and included. In addition, she started playing tennis with no knowledge of the sport but quickly fell in love with it and dedicated herself to learning everything she could, eventually joining the varsity team in the doubles category.

Coachella Valley High School

Edgar Avila Fuentes
Edgar is an avid athlete who participates in multiple sports, but he is extremely passionate about tennis and plays almost every day, dedicating countless hours to practicing and training. He notes that he has a strong competitive streak, but that tennis also taught him valuable lessons in consistency, humility and respect. As a student, he is trustworthy and responsible and has worked hard to improve his academics during his high school career. Edgar also makes a positive impact on his community through his volunteer work with Friday Night Live, a drug and alcohol prevention program located in the Indio unemployment office.

Isabella Partida-Lopez
Isabella hopes to leverage her strong communications skills into a Marketing major in college. She is a diligent student with a strong academic record and has won awards for her consistently high GPA. She is active outside the classroom and has participated in internships in the real estate and media/communications fields, where she proved herself to be responsible and professional. Isabella is also a determined athlete, who has played on her varsity tennis team from her freshman year and has approached competition with a calm and focused demeanor. She credits her culture, her family and her love of learning with shaping her determination to succeed.

Desert Mirage High School

Sinai Beltran
Sinai’s dream is to serve her community as a child psychologist. She has excelled in her schoolwork, has won multiple academic awards, and is set to graduate as the valedictorian of her class. Beyond academics, she is an active member of her local community, primarily working to help children – as a mentor in the Carnalito program, she has not only tutored children in mathematics but also provided advice and emotional support. At school, she is the president of the Movimento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, a cultural empowerment group that encourages Latino youth to be active in their community. Isabella is also a committed tennis player and part of her school’s varsity team, where she plays in the doubles category.

Angel Diarte-Salomon
Angel has excelled in his academic pursuits, including taking multiple AP courses, and has made the Honor Roll every year from 9 th to 12 th grade. He is also an accomplished athlete, who plays both basketball and tennis. As the boys’ varsity tennis captain, he would lead by example and motivate his teammates, and he was named the team’s Most Valuable Player in the 2024-2025 school year. On top of his impressive achievements in academics and sports, Angel is an innovator: he is currently developing the framework for an automatic tree trimmer and is learning how to program a machine learning model to predict the value of crude oil based on past and present data.

About BNP Paribas and tennis

BNP Paribas shares with tennis fans the love of this sport through a historic commitment that began in 1973 and applies to all levels of tennis worldwide: from tennis clubs to tournaments where the greatest players and players compete.

The diversity of BNP Paribas’ commitments demonstrates the Group’s passion for tennis, a true love story that has been growing steadily for more than 50 years. Here is a summary of its current anchors in all its dimensions.

Professional tennis: main sponsor of Roland-Garros since 1973, sponsor of three ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome), of the Grand Prix Aurvergne Rhone Alpes in Lyon and of the BNP Paribas Fortis European Open in Bruxelles (ATP250), of the Strasbourg Internationals (WTA500) and of numerous Challenger tournaments in the secondary professional circuit.
Tennis en Fauteuil: title partner of the BNP Paribas World Team Cup, partner of the French Riviera Open and the Swiss Open Geneva;
University tennis: partner of the French University Sports Federation and the BNP Paribas Master’U since 1993;
Amateur tennis: sponsor of the BNP Paribas Family trophy and National Tennis Cup trophy and partner of more than 1000 amateur tournaments supported by the bank worldwide;
Corporate sports: The BNP Paribas internal tournament (We Are Tennis Cup) is one of the world's leading corporate sports events (3,500 participants each year).

BNP Paribas, a loyal supporter of tomorrow's tennis for more than 50 years, supports future generations in the belief that tennis is an even more influential sport when it is focused on youth.

Supporting ambitious new generations:
- BNP Paribas supports more than 150 young tennis and handi-tennis players in their career development, as part of its "Team BNP Paribas Young Talents" program in France (under the mentorship of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and in association with the French Tennis Federation), the United States (with John and Patrick McEnroe), Belgium (with Justine Henin), Canada (with Félix Auger-Aliassime) and Italy, Poland, and Japan.
- BNP Paribas has also been a partner in the selection of Roland-Garros ball kids for 25 years. Since 2000, more than 6,000 young people have been able to realize their dream by participating in Roland-Garros as ball kids.

Supporting a more inclusive, accessible and solidarity-based tennis: BNP Paribas is a creator and accelerator of social projects related to tennis alongside more than 20 national tennis federations and dozens of charities:
- The "#FAAPointsForChange" program in partnership with Canadian player Félix Auger-Aliassime was launched in 2020. For every point won on the ATP tour, Félix gives $5 and BNP Paribas adds $15. The money raised is used to finance scholarships for talented students from rural areas in Togo.
- The ‘Points for Change’ program, launched on the occasion of the 50-year partnership with Roland-Garros in 2023, aims to transform the points scored by players on court into solidarity initiatives for the inclusion of young generations through sport. Each point scored on each single match of the professional tournaments partnered by BNP Paribas is valued and converted into funding. This mechanism helped to strengthen the following commitments:

The historic partnership since 2001 with Yannick Noah’s “Fête le Mur” charity to promote access to tennis among young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
"Girls On the Run – Riverside chapter”, a charity based in the Coachella valley. "Girls On The Run” promotes sports for youth by integrating exercise and a research program to improve girls’ living conditions across the United States.
And many more around the world, in Poland, Italy, the UK, etc.

About BNP Paribas
Leader in banking and financial services in Europe, BNP Paribas operates in 64 countries and has nearly 178,000 employees, including more than 144,000 in Europe. The Group has key positions in its three main fields of activity: Commercial, Personal Banking & Services for the Group’s commercial & personal banking and several specialised businesses including BNP Paribas Personal Finance and Arval; Investment & Protection Services for savings, investment and protection solutions; and Corporate & Institutional Banking, focused on corporate and institutional clients. Based on its strong diversified and integrated model, the Group helps all its clients (individuals, community associations, entrepreneurs, SMEs, corporates and institutional clients) to realise their projects through solutions spanning financing, investment, savings and protection insurance. In Europe, BNP Paribas has four domestic markets: Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg. The Group is rolling out its integrated commercial & personal banking model across several Mediterranean countries, Türkiye, and Eastern Europe. As a key player in international banking, the Group has leading platforms and business lines in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas as well as a solid and fast-growing business in Asia-Pacific. BNP Paribas has implemented a Corporate Social Responsibility approach in all its activities, enabling it to contribute to the construction of a sustainable future, while ensuring the Group's performance and stability.

View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260312813662/en/

CONTACT: Press Contacts:BNP PARIBAS

Jelena Nedelka

External Communications

+1 (332) 280 1394

[email protected] PARIBAS OPEN

Joe Weinberg

MVT PR

[email protected]

KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA NEW YORK UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: SPORTS FINANCE TENNIS BANKING PROFESSIONAL SERVICES PHILANTHROPY OTHER PHILANTHROPY PRIMARY/SECONDARY EDUCATION

SOURCE: BNP Paribas