HSC gives $42,000 in scholarships

  • Published
  • By Suk Harvey
  • Hanscom Spouses Club
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  On May 9 the Hanscom Spouses Club hosted nearly 100 people at the Minuteman Commons to honor 15 high school seniors and four spouses during the 51st annual HSC Scholarship Awards Night. The students were dependents of military families in the New England area.

HSC officers awarded $42,000 in scholarships to the students, all of whose transcripts show mostly As and Bs, most of whom have attained honors in various subjects and many who will major in technically-challenging disciplines in top colleges and universities.

The top student is awarded The Chief of Staff Award of $4,500. This year's recipient was Ryan M. Canavan, who will study International Health at Georgetown University in the fall.

Other students were awarded special scholarships named in memory of personnel from the Hanscom community. Winners of those scholarships included:

- The Carmen Shipper Memorial Award: Kenneth J. Sterrett, Salem State University, pre-law, $3,500
- The Jeanne M. Richter Memorial Award: Michele J. Newby, Virginia Tech, biology, $1,500
- The Lieutenant General Chubb Award: Kerrianne L. Marino, St. Anselm College, $2,500
- The Brian D. Sweeney Memorial Award: Sarah A. Witzig, Northeastern University, $4,000
- The Colonel Chuck Jones Memorial Award: Jake T. Kobylarz, Tulane University, pre-med, $3,500

Other students awarded scholarships were:

Spouses: Lisa Pilat (Mount Wachusett, accounting), Shantael Browder, Sarah Gross (Clark University, international development).

Seniors: Allison Billingsely (Boston University, pre-med), Elaine Danielczyk (Fordham University, history), Michael Gallucci (University of Connecticut, physiology), Marie Goo (University of Massachusetts-Amherst, nursing), Kayula Hodge (University of Connecticut), Kevin Jimenez-Cowell (Fordham University, pre-med), Laura Mazzuca (University of Tampa, forensic science), Brittni Morton (Roger Williams University), Miranda Stanaford (Messiah College, history) and Daniel Vande Kamp (Louisiana State University, pre-med).

This year marks the 51st year the HSC held an annual scholarship awards night. Fred Raskind was the first scholarship recipient from the former Officers' Wives Club. He was awarded $250 in 1961, which paid for his entire first semester at UMass-Amherst.

Now a Rabbi in Hagerstown, Md., Raskind was the guest speaker at this year's award ceremony. He gave an inspiring speech to this year's scholarship recipients with lots of laughs and great applause at the end. He said he was delighted to return to Hanscom and tell his story.

The HSC raised $42,000 this year from many corporate donors and benefactors. Without these contributions, and the work by HSC members at the Thrift Shop, auction and scholarship committee, the HSC scholarship program would not be possible.