SHARING THEIR STORIES

⏩ The following students received scholarships from Gateway Community College’s scholarship fund this year. To date, 562 Gateway students who received 691 scholarships, totaling $292,136.

Ansonia: Irene Arias, Laptop Scholarship, Abdelilah Asnabla, Laptop Scholarship, Raven Carofano, Laptop Scholarship, Lesly Delacruz, FESP Scholarship, Cameron Dyment, Laptop Scholarship, Monica Maldonado, FESP Scholarship, Alexandria Miranda, Frederick & Elisabeth DeLuca Vocational Scholarship, Kristina Molnar, Frederick & Elisabeth DeLuca Vocational Scholarship, Nikka Real, Laptop Scholarship, Lesly Reinoso, Delacruz Laptop Scholarship, Maribet Rivera, Laptop Scholarship, Ashley Sanchez, FESP Scholarship, Meagan Young, Laptop Scholarship & FESP Scholarship, Hao Yuxin, Laptop Scholarship.

Bethany: Nicole Buono, Frederick & Elisabeth DeLuca Vocational Scholarship, Caitlin Eccleston, Frederick & Elisabeth DeLuca Vocational Scholarship, Gail Roundtree, FESP Scholarship, Johanne Rousseau-Holt Laptop Scholarship & FESP Scholarship.

Cheshire: William Remington Frederick & Elisabeth DeLuca Vocational Scholarship, Amanda Sutphin Laptop Scholarship, Ana Wilkinson Laptop Scholarship.

⏩ Hamden-area student Mustafa Ather was recently honored as a finalist in the 15th annual eesmarts™ Student Contest. Presented by Energize Connecticut sponsors, Eversource and United Illuminating, Southern Connecticut Gas and Connecticut Natural Gas, subsidiaries of AVANGRID Inc., the eesmarts Student Contest invites Connecticut students in grades K-12 to create projects about energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainability. Mustafa won 1st place in the Grade 4 category for his letter to the principal where he described simple changes students can make to help save energy.

Contributed photo Dick Shank, left, and Luis Forsell, World War II veterans and residents of Elim Park in Cheshire, recently recently reflected on their service and the anniversary of the war’s end. In July 1945, Shank was a Navy officer serving on a destroyer in the Pacific and Forsell, a Navy sailor, was working at a signal tower in the Philippines. Both were preparing for Operation Downfall, the code name for the Allied invasion of mainland Japan. However, the program to develop a nuclear weapon produced a successful test in July. With authorization from President Harry S. Truman, the U.S. military dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, and a second one on Nagasaki three days later. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15. Forsell went home and attended Ohio State University, where he was part of Naval ROTC. He was a successful homebuilder for 55 years after the war, and is now 93. Shank, now 95, graduated from Yale in 1948 with a degree in electrical engineering and eventually become a Yale professor. He retired in 1985, after a long career on the New Haven campus. The two said their experiences in the war taught them to appreciate life “one day at a time.”