If you value learning, doing research and getting involved in meaningful projects, how do you show your appreciation? Three students at Storm King School have come up with an answer. They’re creating a scholarship so someone else can have the opportunities they’ve enjoyed.
The idea isn’t new. Sophia Grausso, Pierce Pramuka and Rory Tobin thought of it three years ago when they were eighth-graders. That spring they hosted their first fund-raiser, a singing contest known as “The Battle of the Belters.”
The students raised $4,000. It was a good start, but just a fraction of what they needed. A few years passed until they returned to the project as high school juniors. Now they’re at it again. They’ve sent emails to local businesses and they’re planning some events for the spring. They’re hoping to see the $4,000 grow to $40,000 by the time they graduate.
The initial plan was for the scholarship to benefit a Syrian refugee. But the students decided to help someone closer to home after volunteering at the Newburgh Armory Unity Center and seeing a lot of youngsters with both talent and passion.
They made that decision in 2015 and confirmed it when we met this month. “We know there are a lot of students who would like to do something like we’ve done,” Sophia said, “but they need the financial help.”
The scholarship would be spread over four years and would go to a day student — a person who commutes to the school. “It’s a lofty goal. It won’t be easy to achieve,” Pierce admitted. “But we’re kind of repaying the school, because they aided us.”
The students are designing the application for the candidates and will have some say in the selection, although the school will make the final decision. The goal is to select an eighth-grader in the spring of 2020, and have that person begin their freshman year in the fall.
Before that happens, however, the successful candidate will get a tour of the school with his or her benefactors (Sophia, Pierce and Rory) serving as guides.
