— Photo courtesy of  Somerville Kiwanis

On Thursday, June 5, one of our most gratifying meetings of our year was held at the Burren Restaurant and Pub in Davis Square. Our annual scholarship awards meeting was held to celebrate and award twelve amazing Somerville High School graduates with a $1000 scholarship each. Eleven of the twelve graduates were able to join us for today’s meeting.

The scholarships were awarded to:

1. The Gerry Donahoe Memorial Scholarship was presented to Jaylee Whalen.
2. The Paul O. Kelly Memorial Scholarship was presented to Ambika Bhardwaj.
3. The Larry Post Memorial Scholarship was presented to Kerby Luxama.
4. The Pauline D’Aurora Memorial Scholarship was presented to Francisco Santos Landaverde.
5. Giselle Altamiranda
6. Thiago Betti
7. Maria Costa
8. Elle Gys
9. Mashruf Mahin
10. Manjot Singh
11. Kaylie Wen
12. (Unable to attend)

These amazing graduates will be attending colleges and universities near and far, including Harvard University, Boston College, Northeastern University, University of Southern California, University of Massachusetts / Amherst, Fitchburg State University, Salem State University, and Bunker Hill Community College, among others.

Somerville Police Chief Shumeane Benford also attended and addressed the recipients.

These scholarships are made possible each year by the generous support of our members and friends through our Lucky K program, chaired by past president Charlie Ball, and grants from the Somerville Kiwanis Scholarship Foundation.

President Tom Austin and Co-President Dawn Austin thanked the committee for their diligent work selecting these twelve recipients from among fifty-one applicant essays. The committee, chaired by Past President Tony Ciccariello, included Distinguished Past President David O’Brien, Past President Isaac Machado, and Past President Charlie Ball.

To learn more about the Kiwanis Club of Somerville, visit our web page, www.somervillekiwanis.org, or like our Facebook page, Kiwanis Club of Somerville.

— Somerville Kiwanis