June 3, 2019
Meeting these students is an inspiration every single year. It is always an honor to be part of the scholarship award process for Raiders Remember. It has been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had, year after year. Thanks to the students for being such an inspiration!
Congrats to the Raiders Remember Scholarship winners: Michael Gagliardi and Marielle Michno
Congrats to the Raiders Remember Honorable Mention Award winner: Vanessa Rapoza
This year, we had a very hard time deciding on the final winners, and really wanted to include these outstanding students, so we created the “Recognition Award” category. Congrats to the Raiders Remember Scholarship Recognition Award winners: Abigail Belchoir, Julianna Richards, and Santiago Abrill Zegarra
The Raiders Remember Scholarship Fund wasestablished in 2014 as a result of the Raiders Remember Farewell Event for the former Somerset High School building, looking forward to new beginnings and the future of Somerset Berkley Regional High School. The success of the event has made it such that we have built a perpetuating foundation that gives back to Somerset, including scholarships to graduates of SBRHS attending accredited two or four year, degree-granting colleges or universities, including vocational, and technical colleges.
Raiders Remember was founded on a set of core values: loyalty, leadership, legacy, community, extra curricular involvement, personality and presentation. We are inspired by our award winners, and strongly believe that they exemplify the Raider spirit. We truly believe they ultimately will preserve the Raiders Remember culture and core values.
The application process consisted of the submittal of a paper application along with an essay, of which the applicants had to “Describe in detail what makes you proud to be a Blue Raider.” The top candidates were then interviewed, and the top two candidates and Honorable Mention candidate were chosen. We are very proud to be able to give back to these students. They did a tremendous job.
We would like to thank the student winners for being such an inspiration, and wish them best of luck! We look forward to seeing what their amazing future holds!
On behalf of the Raiders Remember Committee,I am honored to award the two $2,500 Raiders Remember Scholarship winners, and the $1,000 Honorable Mention Award Winner for their outstanding achievements and aspirations.
Raiders Remember Scholarship Winners ($2,500 each):
Michael Gagliardi, attending UMass Amherst
Marielle Michno attending Saint Anselm College
Raiders Remember Scholarship Honorable Mention Winner ($1,000 each):
Vanessa Raposa, attending UMass Amherst
Raiders Remember Scholarship Recognition Award ($500 each):
Abigail Belchoir, attending Flagler College
Julianna Richards, attending Stony Brook University
Santiago Abrill Zegarra, attending UMass Amherst
Thank you. All the best!
Holly McNamara
Executive Chair, Raiders Remember