Think about these past months of this COVID pandemic year for a moment. Schools closed. Schools switched to virtual learning. Sports seasons were cancelled. Extracurricular activities and clubs disappeared. Proms, award nights and graduation ceremonies were cancelled. The news reported the struggle with learning totally online on a small screen, the lack of personal contact with teachers and the loss of the social network of friends. It has been a very difficult and traumatic school year for many.
Now let me tell you about two remarkable young people who have risen above it all and then some! Judith Menjivar Morales and Javier Enrique Orellana Ostorga are 2021 graduates of Annapolis High School. Judith and Javier are immigrants from El Salvador and have been in the country for about five years. Both have overcome language barriers, cultural barriers, COVID restrictions and have excelled academically to graduate at the top of their class!
Judith has been on the Superintendent’s Honor Roll every marking period for the past four years and is a member of the National Honor Society. Judith has been accepted to 13 prestigious colleges & universities and has decided to attend the Loyola University of Maryland to study Biology to prepare for medical school.
Javier is also an Honor Roll student, an athlete, a student volunteer and works part-time at a local restaurant. Javier has a passion for government and politics and has applied to 20 notable colleges and universities and has decided to attend the George Washington University in Washington DC to study political science.
In recognition of their exemplary achievements, Judith and Javier were each presented with a $1,000 scholarship from the Suzanne F. Cohen Fund at a ceremony held at the Center of Help on May 25th. We are grateful for the generous donations to the fund from Ms. Tatiana Klein and Beverly and Stephen Marcus, which made these scholarship awards possible.
I am new to the Board of Directors of the Center of Help. I spent my career in higher education with the last 25 years being at Anne Arundel Community College where I served as the Director of Admissions and Enrollment Development. In my time at the community college, I worked with international and immigrant students from all over the world who came to the United States to pursue their dreams. I believe in the value of education because the process of learning and the acquisition of knowledge truly transforms lives. It has been my honor to serve as the chair of the Center’s Scholarship Committee and work with these extraordinary students.
Our scholarship is funded through our endowment. If you would like to help us grow the scholarship fund to assist more worthy students, please donate through the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County at https://cfaac.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?funit_id=2016
If you would like to help us grow and support our other programs, please consider a donation to: Center of Help, Inc., 1906 Forest Drive, Suite 2A-2B, Annapolis, MD 21401. Donations can also be made by PayPal and Amazon Smile. For more information, visit: https://centerofhelp.org/donate-now/
Thank you for your consideration!
Thomas McGinn
Chair, Scholarship Committee
Board of Directors
To learn more about Judith and Javier, visit: https://centerofhelp.org/meet-our-scholarship-recipients/
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