HSNP Rotary Club awards grads $18K in scholarships
Hot Springs National Park Rotary Club presented scholarships to local graduating seniors and non-traditional students on April 25.
Under the leadership of chair Dana Lambert, the 2018 recipients were selected by the Rotary Club Scholarship Committee. The Club awarded a total of $18,000 in scholarships.
Rotarian and past scholarship committee chair John Hoefl filled in for Lambert during the presentation.
“We awarded (19) scholarships, three of which were to our Interact Club,” Hoefl said. “Interact Club is a program for high school students that are Rotarians in high school, of which we have two. One is Hot Springs High School and one is ASMSA (Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts).”
Three students were selected to receive Interact Scholarships. Emily Peterman was awarded the Hot Springs Interact Scholarship, while Jessica Nunn and Riddhi Modi were awarded the ASMSA Interact Scholarships.
Students selected for the Interact Scholarships are nominated by the Interact coordinator or school counselor for excelling in the Interact program at their school, Hoefl said.
“If you excel in the Interact Club the counselor or the moderator may say ‘Hey, this student is doing really well and I think they would be a good candidate to receive a scholarship,’” he said. “They ask the scholarship committee what we think and we say ‘OK, if that’s your top student, we’ll award them a scholarship for all their hard work.’”
The scholarship program is one of the club’s biggest projects during the year, he said.
Students awarded scholarships include:
• Faith Bratton, Kleinman Family
Scholar.
• Antoniesha Burns, Joe F. Fish Rotary Scholar.
• Alitza Cabibi, Joe and Betsy Smith Scholar.
• Alyssa Diggs, Endicott Family Scholar.
• Hannah Gloria, Joe F. Fish Scholar.
• Ayania Hicks, Community
1st Trust Scholar.
• Parion Johnson, Joe F. Fish Rotary Scholarship.
• Karl Lowry, Thesis Memorial Scholarship.
• Shanisa Lowery, Larson Family Scholarship.
• Raina Smith, JWCK Ltd. Endowed Scholar.
• Madeline Sweetin, Joe F. Fish Rotary Scholar.
• Emily Turner, Cupp Scholar.
• Raven Turner, Averill Family Scholarship.
• Courtney West, Jefferson D Farris Family Scholar.
• Kristen Wilson, Joe F. Fish Rotary Scholar.
• Franco Zuniga, Miller-Dickson Family Scholar.
According to a news release, scholarships are funded through the Hot Springs National Park Rotary Scholarship Foundation Trust and the Hot Springs National Park Rotary Joe F. Fish Scholarship Endowment Fund, as well as additional donations from the membership. The applicants were evaluated on leadership, community service, and the impact the scholarship would have on the student, according to the Club’s newsletter.
“Back in the mid-’50s, our club established a scholarship award for higher education — one scholarship,” Hoefl said. “We increased the number of scholarships so that by 1997 we had up to 10 scholarships. The money for the scholarships came from club members who wished to honor their family or friends during their lifetime.
“Basically, in continuing the tradition of Rotary of ‘Service above self,’ we increased our member scholarships to over 18 and then the past six months we’ve been working with the area schools in Garland County and with their counselors, and to include also maybe the non-traditional students, and then also anybody who is homeschooled or private schooled.”
The application process, he said, includes the students getting three reference letters, providing high school or college transcripts, and ACT or SAT scores. But the Club includes extracurriculars in its criteria.
“We provide a lot of criteria on their out-of-school activities as well as in school activities,” Hoefl said. “So if somebody’s really involved with their church, or with Boy Scouts, or with the Girl Scouts, or a team, band or cheerleading, we give a lot of weight to that. We also give a lot of weight to if the student is a single parent or comes from a single parent household.”
Any higher education, he said, is counted in this scholarship process from four-year degrees to technical degrees, and the committee tries to spread the scholarships to all area schools.
Scholarships were presented by Charitable Christian Ministries and Clinic Executive Director Lynn Blankenship, who Hoefl said has served on the Scholarship Committee for six years because “she realizes that education has the power to change a life.”
“What we’re trying to do is expose these students, whether it’s through the Interact Club or through visiting students program or the scholarships to what Rotary does for the local community,” he said. “We do that so one day when they do graduate maybe they’ll come back to Hot Springs and make a living.”