The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Bar association awards scholarships
MIDDLETOWN — The Middlesex County Bar Association Scholarship Committee recently awarded a total of $4,.500 in funding for three high school students whose essays on the women’s suffrage movement were among top submissions.
“Their academic achievement, service to community and school, monetary need, and the quality of their essays on our Law Day topic: ‘Your Vote, Your Voice, Our Democracy: The 19th Amendment at 100,’ recommended them for their awards,” according to a news release from Old Saybrook attorney Richard F. Paladino, chairman of the scholarship committee.
The year, President Judge Holzberg (Ret.) suggested three scholarships be given out in 2020 instead of the usual two, in an effort to recognize the economics due to the COVID-19
pandemic, according to the press release.
Winners are Ava Duval and Erica Lull, both of Valley Regional High School in Deep River; and Maggie Donohue of East Hampton High School.
All three wrote essays on the 19th Amendment.
In her application, Donohue wrote about women and other “disenfranchised” people, who, she says, still have much work ahead of them. She also believes the nation could see a woman president one day soon.
Duval said that, in a democracy, the importance of voting is an essential right. “I have never known a time where I felt that being a woman could in any way hold me back. Learning of women’s suffrage has caused her to realize how precious and hard-fought our rights can be.”
Lull’s essay said even following amendment’s passage, women still did not gain full rights to vote. “Social convention still inhibited women from declaring their positions. Many were discouraged from voting by their communities, or would vote in accordance with their husband.”
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the organization was unable to hold its traditional Law Day luncheon and presentation, and instead presented the awards via Zoom May 14.