Above: Four high school juniors were able to participate in a youth leadership conference this summer thanks to the Southborough Rotary Club. The Rotary is thanking a fund donor and reaching out for more businesses to step up. (contributed image, L-R – Bridget Brady, Lizzi Narcisse (a Sboro leadership counselor), Mazen Yatim, Sada Nichols-Worley, Molly O’Brien)
If you’re in town for Heritage Day weekend, you’ll likely be seeing Southborough Rotary volunteers at some point. They’re organizing the scarecrow display, running Light Up Southborough, and are sure to have a booth on the field.
When you see them, you can ask them about their scholarship fund.
This year, the Rotary is making a push to expand program funding. They’ve asked me to thank their newest sponsor Fitts Insurance for its $300 donation.
But their most important message, is that they are looking for more donors.
The program funds two kinds of scholarships: An academic-based award to a student attending a Mass state university, and attendance of four high school juniors at the annual Rotary Youth Leadership Awards conference.
As part of the fundraising effort, they are highlighting the gap between their scholarship fund vs other local communities’.
You can read their message here:
Southborough Rotary Club is in the middle of a Scholarship Sponsor Campaign, and we invite community businesses and involved residents to join us in supporting our young adults. Since 1960, Southborough Rotary has been making merit based scholarships available to our local students. We want to continue this important tradition and expand our efforts.
More recently, Southborough Rotary has been supporting local students with two types of scholarships. One type is an academic-based award where we give $4000 ($1000 a year) to high school students who are attending Massachusetts state universities. The other is a leadership development scholarship for four rising high school juniors to attend the annual RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) over the summer.
Julia Duffy is our present $4000 Scholarship Award recipient. In June, Sada Nichols-Worley, Molly O’Brien, Bridget Brady, Mazen Yatim traveled to Fitchburg State University to participate in this year’s RYLA conference.
Both types have made a difference in the lives of our young people. Ultimately, our long range goal is to sponsor four $4000 state college scholarships and four RYLA leadership scholarships annually and be more in line with other local Rotary clubs.
Presently, Westborough Rotary gives out over $11,000 in scholarships while Northborough and Marlborough Rotary clubs sponsors over $8000 in scholarships annually. Most of these scholarship funds are supported by local businesses and Rotary events in their respective towns. Southborough Rotary gives out $2000.
If you are interested in becoming a Scholarship Sponsor, please email David Vachris from the Rotary Club of Southborough at dvachris@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or send correspondences to our PO Box 391 in Southborough. Thank you!
