Then it came time to award the scholarships. Teri Treat started things off. A goodly number of recipients were unavailable for the meeting. So, we will just make do with listing their names and the scholarship: The RCOB and the RCOB Foundation distributed over $90,000 in Scholarships this year.
Rotary Club of Bellingham Endowment with:
Western Washington University Clara Scott
Whatcom Community College Rizon Takabe
Bellingham Technical College Elise Jensen
Rotary Club of Bellingham Foundation Named Scholarships:
The Ershig Family Scholarships went to four students:
Holly Carman Francine Lowe Jeremy Davidson Matthew Gaylord
The D. C. Morse Jr. & Jan Marchbanks Family Scholarships' four recipients were:
James Vyvyan Momcilo Bozic Huver Ballesteros Samuel Conrad
The Douglas Blair Memorial Scholarships went to:
Bree Farmer Maureen Ryan Hannah Mortensen
Scholarships administered by the Whatcom Community Foundation Dollars for Scholars:
The Phil Millard Memorial Athletic Scholarship:
Dave Millard, Phil Millard's brother, gave a few remarks prior to the awarding. He thanked the Rotary Club of Bellingham for helping with the awarding of these scholarships for the past 45 years. He encouraged the recipients to engage with organizations like Rotary.
Marta Stephensen from Squalicum started off the race to the podium. She looks to finish her AA at WCC and then head back East and do community work. Eventually, she plans to go to Cal State Long Beach.
Jacob Sorenson of Squalicum will head off to Cal Poly to study mechanical engineering. What is it with the California schools? Oh, yeah – sunshine.
Grace Schamber, a student from Bellingham High will travel down to Seattle to attend UW’s Foster School of Business and Interdisciplinary Arts program, dealing with water quality and access to oceans.
Next was Grayson Stone, also from BHS, who will head back East also, to study public policy at Emory University. He is interested in studying how public policy affects citizens’ lives.
As a fitting conclusion to these scholarship presentations, Alice Millard, Phil Millard's mom, had a few kind words for the scholars, and even found some for old geezers like this reporter. She has fond feelings for the Club (her late husband, Ron, was a long-standing active Member) and for Bellingham.
Teri then presented to Cassy La, from Squalicum, the Michael Mischaikow Scholarship. She will be going to WCC, intending to get her prerequisites done prior to going to UW, WSU or Creighton for a pharmacy degree. That’s a rough road.
Dennis Williams took over to continue the awards ceremony. He presented the Rotary Club of Bellingham Foundation Scholarships to the five students who attended:
Most Improved Students Scholarships were presented to Edwin Garcia of Squalicum, who will continue his education toward a better future, and Luke Bartel, a young man headed to WWU to study kinesthesiology, with plans of becoming a chiropractor.
Outstanding Academic Achievement Scholarship was awarded to Grace Schamber. In accepting her second scholarship of the day, she promised to work really hard at UW and find a way to help others while doing her studies.
Best Overall Student Scholarships were awarded to two Squalicum High students: Katie Nguyen expressed gratitude for the chance to attend UW and study biology. Sonali Rughani aims to attend New York University, majoring in dance. Her goal is to force the door open wider to students of color, especially in dance and the other performing arts.
Foundation award recipients unable to attend today were: Piper Nissen, Ansley Hardy, Riley Johnson, Dante Jimenez and Jade Ware.
Dennis closed the ceremony by reminding the students that they didn’t earn these awards on their own. They were helped by parents, siblings, teachers, friends and neighbors. He told the students that our Club members would very much like to hear of their progress and asked them to drop us a line every once in a while. Apparently, Dennis doesn’t know how kids communicate today. In fact, this reporter just found out that, to them, even email is passe!
