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NNY Community Foundation Announces Winners of Class
of 2025 Scholarship Challenge
Published: May 03, 2025 at
12:00 p.m.
By: Press Release
from NNY Community Foundation
Community Foundation Announces Winners of Class of
2025 Scholarship Challenge
Four School Districts Earn a Share of $5,000 in Grant
Funding for Increasing Student Participation in Foundation’s Scholarship
Program
From left: South Lewis High School Counseling
Office Secretary Tonya Bronson; South Lewis Central School District
Superintendent Douglas Premo; South Lewis High School senior Lydia
Phelps, Class of 2025 secretary; senior Hunter Burrows, Class of
2025 treasurer; senior MacCoy Maciejko, Class of 2025 president;
senior Noah Dailey, Class of 2025 vice president; South Lewis High
School Counselor Julie Burmingham; and South Lewis High School
Counselor Jessica Hastwell.
WATERTOWN — Four school
districts across Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties were recently
named winners of the Community Foundation’s Class of 2025 Scholarship
Challenge and earned a share of $5,000 in grant funding.
Three school
districts — one in each county the Community
Foundation serves — each received a $1,000 grant and a fourth was awarded
the top Scholarship Challenge grant of $2,000.
Lewis County’s South Lewis Central School District is the
top grant winner with 32 percent, or 15, of its 47 seniors submitting
scholarship applications.
“We appreciate
all the work the Community Foundation team put into making this scholarship
completion campaign so successful,” South Lewis High School Counselor Julie
Burmingham said. “How exciting for our seniors!”
Winning school
districts receiving a $1,000 grant are: Jefferson County’s LaFargeville Central School with 56
percent, or 22, of its 39 seniors submitting applications; Lewis County’s Copenhagen
Central School with 50 percent, or 11, of its 22 seniors submitting
applications; and St. Lawrence County’s Lisbon Central School with
37 percent, or 17, of its 46 seniors submitting applications.
Members of Copenhagen Central School’s Class
of 2025 surrounds class officers, from left, Ayva Herzberg,
treasurer, Alexis Villeneuve, vice president, and Maddy Carrol,
president, as they hold a $1,000 ceremonial check. Absent from photo is Julia Richardson, class secretary.
Schools selected
for grant awards were chosen at random during two Community Foundation
Facebook Live events. Grant funding may be used to support a schoolwide
initiative or project chosen by the senior class officers at the winning
schools.
The challenge
sought to inspire greater participation in the Foundation’s scholarship
program from the Class of 2025 and give schools a chance to win grant
support for on-campus programs or initiatives.
The Community
Foundation’s scholarship program supports graduating seniors pursuing
further education— whether at an accredited college, university, technical,
or trade school.
The Scholarship
Challenge was open to all schools in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence
counties. To be eligible, schools had to achieve at least 25 percent
participation from their senior class in submitting scholarship
applications by the Foundation’s March 15 deadline.
“It was great to
see the schools participate in a spirited competition, especially knowing
that by increasing the participation rate, everyone wins,” said Rande S.
Richardson, Community Foundation executive director. “We are grateful
for everyone who helped make this our most successful year ever, which will
better enable us to align the needs of local students with the generosity
of donors.”
Throughout the
challenge, the Community Foundation reported progress at the end of each
week on its Facebook and Instagram channels.
A record 24
percent, or 604 of the 2,472 members of the Class of 2025 in Jefferson,
Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties applied for Community Foundation
scholarship support by this year’s deadline.
In Jefferson
County, 30 percent, or 356, of the 1,181 seniors in the county’s 13 school
districts applied. Lewis County saw 30 percent. or 79, of the 261 seniors
in the county’s five school districts apply, while St. Lawrence County saw
16 percent, or 169, of the 1,030 seniors in the county’s 18 school
districts complete a scholarship application.
Since the
application for high school seniors closed on March 15, the Foundation’s
Scholarship and Program team has been hard at work scoring student
applications and collaborating with scholarship committee members and
fundholders to match applicants with potential awards. In most cases,
students and school districts will be notified of student selection before
graduation in June.
In partnership
with donors and tri-county school districts, the Community Foundation last
year awarded $1.33 million in scholarship support to 583 graduating high
school seniors from Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties. The
average award in 2024 was $2,250 per student. In many cases, eligible
students were awarded more than one scholarship to pursue their educational
goals.
Contact Mary
Perrine, scholarship and program manager, 315-782-7110, or maryp@nnycf.org,
or Tara Hess, scholarship and program associate, tara@nnycf.org,
with questions about Community Foundation scholarships.
About the
Northern New York Community Foundation
Since 1929, the
Northern New York Community Foundation has invested in improving and
enriching the quality of life for all in communities across Jefferson,
Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties.
Through
partnerships with businesses and organizations, charitable foundations, and generous families and individual
donors, the Community Foundation awards grants and scholarships from an
endowment and collection of funds that benefit the region. Its commitment
to donors helps individuals achieve their charitable objectives now and for
generations to come by preserving and honoring legacies of community
philanthropy while inspiring others.
The Community
Foundation is a resource for local charitable organizations, donors,
professional advisors and nonprofit organizations. It also works to bring
people together at its permanent home in the Northern New York Philanthropy
Center to discuss challenges our communities face and find creative
solutions that strengthen the region and make it a great place to live,
work, and play.
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