A new record: BWC awards 6 scholarships.
Once again the Boynton Woman’s Club members awarded scholarships to local students as it has for decades. This year, however, it increased the number of scholarships from five to six.
The annual scholarship luncheon was held at the clubhouse on April 22 and once again it highlighted the reason BWC continues to do what we do. BWC Education Committee Chairman Dot Neenan along with committee members Connie Cestari, Janet Hakala and Marcie Pallone awarded $1,000 scholarships to local students to help them with their education at a Florida University.
These recipients excel in school, have more than 1,600 hours of volunteer time amongst them and are just a pleasure to be around. The recipients of this year’s scholar-ships are: Monica Melendez, Latonya Davis, Shanetta Roundtree, Stephanie Valdes, Michelle Merrigan and Eliza-beth Merrigan. All are members of the National Honor Society and are Bright Futures Scholarships recipients. The Merrigans are twins who attend Santaluces High School. Both will be attending Florida Atlantic University.
Michelle intends to study elementary education and hopes to teach grades kindergarten through fifth. Elizabeth will also pursue a teaching career focusing on early childhood edu-cation. She’d like to work with kinder-garten children.
Recipients and committee members, pictured from the left, are: Janet Hakala, Michelle Merrigan, Dot Neenan, Latonya Davis, Stephanie Valdes, Connie Cestari, Elizabeth Merrigan, Kay Baker, Shanetta Roundtree, Marcie Pallone and Monica Melendez.
Their father, James, mother, Chris-tina and younger brother, along with their guidance teacher, Kay D’Angio, accompanied the twins to the luncheon.
Stephanie Valdes, a Park Vista High School senior, will be attending the Uni-versity of Central Florida to study busi-ness administration. She has been the “Business and Advertising Director” of the school newspaper at Park Vista. She is the daughter of Angel and Marilyn Valdes. Her mother and her guidance counselor, Betsy Lyons were at the lun-cheon to attest to her accomplishments.
Shanetta Roundtree, daughter of Posha Williams is also going to the Uni-versity of Central Florida. This Lake Worth High School senior will enroll in the premedical curriculum. Her eventual goal is to become a pediatrician. She is well on her way to a medical career as she already has her license as a certified medical assistant. Her mother attended the luncheon to wit-ness Shanetta’s acceptance of the schol-arship. Her guidance counselor, Mary Fauci was unable to attend.
Boynton Beach High School’s Latonya Davis is going to pursue her higher education at the University of South Florida starting this summer. She will study biology and has set dentistry as her ultimate goal. Both her mother, Sheryle Rolle and her guidance teacher, Mrs. Charles were at the luncheon in Latonya’s honor.
Monica Melendez, an Atlantic Com-munity High School senior, was accom-panied to the luncheon by her uncle as her mother, Debra Melendez, was un-able to attend. She too will be attending the University of Central Florida and her studies will include education and psychology. Her guidance counselor, Kelly Bruce, was also at the luncheon for Monica.
This is the first time that the BWC has granted six scholarships. The deci-sion to increase the number by one was actually determined by the fact that all of these applicants more than met the committee’s criteria and because the committee felt it could not grant one of the twins a scholarship and not the other.
Originally the twins were told, and gladly received the news, that they would each be receiving $500, instead of the $1,000 as is usually awarded to re-cipients. However, once the members of the club learned of the situation, several made individual donations to the schol-arship fund. Some of the proceeds from the recent card party were also added to the scholarship fund to allow each of the recipients the full $1,000 scholarship. The Merrigans learned of the additional award at the luncheon.
BWC scholarships are awarded each year to students who live in the City of Boynton Beach, attend a public high school and who will attend a Florida college. The number of recipients and scholarships are fluid each year, depend-ing on the amount of funds the commit-tee can raise. The recipients will receive their actual awards from the colleges at the beginning of the academic year.
– Dot Neenan, Chairman