Though local activist Hilda Zacarias did all the work, she said her recent scholarship to Harvard University represents all of Santa Maria packing its bags and attending school for a year.

Zacarias received the Harvard Presidential Scholar Fellowship, which pays a year-long master's program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. The program starts July 27.

The scholarship isn't just free money though. One of the stipulations is that recipients must make a commitment to work in either government or the nonprofit sector following graduation.

"For me, it's like the 'Hilda clause'," she said, explaining that her desire to work in community service went without saying.

According to Zacarias, public service is something she's been drawn to ever since the death of her mentor, the late Rep. Walter Capps, for whom she worked in 1997.

"After Walter died I decided what I really wanted to do was help nonprofits," she said, "That was when I found my life would be public service, not public accounting."

Zacarias has accumulated a laundry list of community involvement. She's served as a trustee on the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District as well as on the board of Future Leaders of America and the National Conference for Community and Justice. In addition, Zacarias taught tax law at Cal Poly for the last six years when she ended her stint there this June.

For Zacarias, the choice to go to Harvard was no choice at all.

"I grew up in northwest Santa Maria to a single mother with five children," she said, "My mom always told me I could go anywhere I wanted. So this time I said, 'Why not Harvard?'

"The school is all about preparing leaders for service," she said, "I liked that, even the motto for the Kennedy School is 'preparing leaders for service to democratic societies, contributing to the solution of public problems.'"

Describing herself as not the kind of person to "just stay home and say too bad," she said that kind of mentality was right up her alley.

Zacarias also had some local help in achieving her dream.

"I got fabulous letters of recommendation from Patricia Wheatley, the director of First Five in Santa Barbara, where I've worked and also from Christopher Martinez, the executive director of Future Leader of America," she said.

Her children were not left out of the equation.

"My son, Gabriel, tutored me in math for the GRE (Graduate Record Exam)," she said, "I would have never been able to do it without him."

Zacarias will pursue two courses of study, nonprofits and political leadership, while at Harvard.

"I can hopefully become better prepared to be a better thinker for community development," she said. "We deserve strong organizations and representative government. Whoever among us can do it, should."