North Thurston Education Foundation Awards $125,000 in Scholarships to 38 Students

The North Thurston Education Foundation has awarded scholarships with a total value of $125,000 to 38 graduating seniors from North Thurston Public Schools.

Recipients of the scholarships — which range in value from $2,000 to $12,000 —were selected on the basis of factors that included financial need, academic performance, school and community activities, personal essays, and letters of recommendation.

“The committee’s selection process was especially challenging this year due to the many quality applications we received.  We are pleased and proud to be able to award scholarships to 38 of these deserving students.  It is exciting to help these students begin their post-high school educations,” said Cathy Callahan who chaired the committee that reviewed applications and selected the scholarship recipients.

The following graduating seniors received this year’s awards:

North Thurston High School: Fasika Alemu, Jacquelyn DeCastro, Christina Floyd, Jasmin Fuentes, Alexandria Gregg, Dylan Harn, Michelle Hyland, Aubrey Martin, Tyler Powell, Daniela Rojas-Hernandez, Raihaanah Tahir and Shea Thomas.

Timberline High School: Sophia Davies-Ahmed, Kaitlynn Dean, Justin Kuhn, Lisa Lam, Chi Le, Abagail Moldenhauer, Steven Moreno, Valerie Mosier, Jessica Neal, Dakota Nelson, Lauren Schutt , Sana Surrency and Akemi Vuong.

 River Ridge High School:  Kendrick Echevarria, Layla Fuller, Matthew Jenkins, Brandon Kim, Jannell Manandic, Autumn Payne, Zyon Rodriguez, Valentina Salai, Paris Soots, Lisa-Marie Tangaro, Promise Vaitogi and Ryan Young.

South Sound High School:  Lahkaiah Dupervil

Sixteen of the scholarships are named after individuals in the community and funded by bequests from or donations on behalf of the persons for whom they are named. The remaining scholarships were funded solely by the Foundation’s annual fund-raising and by an unrestricted grant from the Dawkins Charitable Trust.

The scholarships recipients were celebrated at a June 10, 2019 reception honoring them and the Foundation’s donors. The reception provided an opportunity for students and donors to meet and visit.