One cleaned up wildlife poop, another helped build an orphanage in Peru. Two advised the Longmont City Council on youth issues, and several educated classmates about the dangers of alcohol.

All of them are high school seniors, and all of them did it for free.

The Longmont Community Foundation presented 16 college-bound seniors in the area with $500 scholarships Wednesday to recognize their selfless labor.

“It’s building community,” said Laura Bickers, the foundation’s program director. “There are scholarships out there for great athletes and great scholars. We hope this award marks the start of a lifetime of volunteering.”

With equal funding from the Daily Times-Call, Centennial Bank of the West and the Longmont Community Foundation, the St. Vrain Community Service Scholarships went to applicants who’ve logged at least 100 hours of community service over the past year. The 25 applicants did not need to submit a grade-point average, but the 16 winning seniors from nine St. Vrain Valley-area schools must spend the money on their continuing education.

“You get to help people and make their lives better,” said Marisol Lozano Roman, a Skyline student who volunteered in a program to donate computers to needy families and who tutored and interpreted for younger students in Longmont. “Volunteering is my most important (priority).”

Julia Blocher said she got more than a scholarship and personal gratification from her volunteer experience at Eco-Cycle centers. A student from Alexander Dawson — a private college preparatory school in Lafayette — Blocher said she also may have found a major when she starts school at Johns Hopkins University.

“I got a passion for environmental science and a passion for helping people there,” Blocher said.

In six years, the foundation has awarded the service scholarship to more than 100 students. And because the winners have received a $500 local service scholarship, they also qualify for a matching $500 federal Presidential Freedom Scholarship.

The words Niwot High School’s Jennifer Czuba used to describe fellow members of her church youth group could well have been used to describe all of Wednesday’s scholarship winners: “They all have such amazing servants’ hearts.”

Source: longmontfyi.com

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Friday, April 28, 2006 at 6:59 am and is filed under Scholarship. Tags: Centennial Bank of the West, College, Community Foundation, Education News, Jennifer Czuba, Johns Hopkins University, Julia Blocher, Laura Bickers, Longmont City Council, Longmont Community Foundation, Marisol Lozano Roman, Peru, Scholarship, St. Vrain Community Service Scholarships, Student, the Daily Times, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.