Ask any islander what the Island Institute provides and they might say “Don’t they give kids college scholarships?” It’s true. The Island Institute has been awarding college scholarships for 20 years. The program began in 1990, with a total of $2,000 in scholarship awards. This year the program awarded more than $90,000 in scholarships to 97 students attending two to four year colleges and universities around the country.
Over the past two decades, there have been approximately 650 awards equaling $730,000 in scholarship support to island students.
Students that received special awards this year include:
Arthur Govoni of Islesboro received the Academic and Community Leadership Scholarship, given to a graduating senior who exemplifies a combination of academic excellence and community leadership.
Arianna Stefanilo of Chebeague Island received the Sweet Scholarship, awarded to a graduating senior who has excellent academic standing.
Sarah Cowles of Islesboro received the Cynthia and Peter Kellogg Scholarship, recognizing academic excellence and an interest in the fields of business and finance.
Anne Bartlett of Great Diamond Island received the new 21st Century Scholarship, awarded to a college upperclassman focusing on a science, technology, engineering, and/or math career.
Flora Drury and Keith Drury, both of Vinalhaven, received Otter Island Scholarships, awarded to students of good academic standing attending specific colleges around the country.
Amilia Campbell of North Haven received a special scholarship from the Shaw Fund for Mariners’ Children.
Anna Maine of Chebeague Island received the Seth Jordan Memorial Fund Scholarship which is awarded to a graduating senior of extremely high academic standing in Casco Bay.
An additional 91 scholarship were awarded to students from Peaks, Long, Chebeague, Matinicus, Isle au Haut, Great Diamond Island, Vinalhaven, Islesford, Islesboro, North Haven, Swan’s Island and Frenchboro.
To celebrate these achievements of island students and the 20-year history of the Maine Island Scholarship program and event was held on June 12th at Point Lookout in Northport.
Arianna Stefanilo, this year’s Sweet Scholarship recipient delivered a special thank you to Bobbie and Cyrus Sweet, the supporters of the Sweet Scholarship. Arianna said, “Everyone deserves a second chance. The Sweet Scholarship is my second chance… This is a new beginning that will allow me to take my first baby steps into the long path of my career.”
In the scholar keynote address Brenden Meyers, resident of Great Diamond Island and rising senior at College of the Holy Cross, advised scholars that they “shouldn’t be motivated by guilt; they should be motivated by a genuine wish to thank the community, regardless of where it is, that helped them grow into who they are, using the skills developed over four years in college. We are given a unique opportunity; but we cannot forget what allowed us to get there-the people around us.” Brenden went on to say that “If anyone’s going to solve Maine’s brain drain, it won’t be the government, it won’t be any incentive program or attractive lures; it will be a social movement that makes us aware of where we come from and the innumerable value that our communities should have to us. It will be a wave of gratitude that reinvigorates Maine, and it is my sincere hope that the students in this room, myself included, will help to spearhead this movement, and through it escort our communities and our state into a future that sees us emerge greater than we ever have been. “
For more information about the Maine Island Scholarship Program visit: http://www.islandinstitute.org/IslandScholarships.php
Ruth Kermish-Allen is the Island Institute’s education director.