Funding from Amazon, AT&T, NJM Insurance Group, PKA Technologies, Public Service Enterprise Group, SHI International Corp., South Jersey Industries and VMware totaled $90,250 to the New Jersey Association of Counties Foundation this year to distribute as scholarships to county vocational-technical school graduates. Recipients have each committed to remaining in New Jersey to further their education and career training.
“We are grateful for these organizations, many of which are repeat donors, for recognizing that an investment in these focused, hard-working students is also an investment in our state,” said John G. Donnadio, executive director of the New Jersey Association of Counties, a nonpartisan organization that helps individual county governments develop a unified, proactive voice. “We anticipate these students remaining in New Jersey to start and grow their careers and contribute to their respective industries.”
The NJAC Foundation annually works with the New Jersey Council of County Vocational-Technical Schools to receive scholarship nominations submitted by New Jersey’s 21 county vocational-technical schools.
Two of the Amazon scholarship winners — Somiya Leslie from Ocean County Vocational Technical School and Daniella Rodriquez-Lopez from Union County Vocational-Technical Schools — demonstrated a maturity and will to succeed, both common traits among awardees.
Leslie maintained her grades and attendance despite losing her mother and assuming responsibility to care for and financially support her siblings. Her innate leadership qualities were not only an asset at home, but also in the OCVTS culinary arts program, where she became the “go-to” student in the program’s kitchen. Her passion for cooking fueled her to keep showing up and progressing toward a fulfilling future in culinary. She now will use the $1,000 Amazon scholarship to continue training at Brookdale Community College.
Rodriquez-Lopez will apply her $1,000 Amazon scholarship to Rutgers University, where she will pursue a degree in nursing.
“Ever since high school, I have set my dreams of being an ICU nurse,” she said. “It became a vision of mine that strengthened when I volunteered at an emergency medical unit. Gaining the experience hands-on … deeply ingrained a desire to support those in need.”
Rodriquez-Lopez noted how she faced financial hardships throughout her youth and pitched in to work long hours and take on some of the worry and burden of making ends meet. She said she is grateful for the Amazon scholarship to help her pay for college and take the steps to one day “make a positive impact as a nurse.”
NJAC scholarship awardees also have impressive résumés that detail opportunities they seized in high school to jump-start their futures. Michael Hemans, who was awarded one of the $900 scholarships from PSEG, was nominated by Andrew Turner, his track coach and counselor at Essex County Schools of Technology. Turner listed Hemans’ many academic and extracurricular accomplishments since emigrating from Ghana during his sophomore year of high school.
“As a Health Career Academy – medical and dental assisting major, he mastered the technical and soft skills necessary to be a productive worker in the health care field,” Turner wrote of Hemans, further noting that Hemans recently passed the American Medical Certification Association exam to become a National Certified Medical Assistant. He also added that Hemans maintained a 4.38 grade-point average while participating in a dual enrollment program offered through Essex Tech that enabled him to earn him more than 30 college credits while in high school.
Hemans now takes those credits and the added financial support provided by the PSEG scholarship to Rutgers University, where he will continue his studies as an environmental and biological science major.
Aditya Mahalingam, a recent graduate of Morris County Vocational School District, earned one of the VMware $1,000 scholarships largely because of the research he started as a high school student studying a specific immunological index on the survival rates of individuals receiving a liver transplant. He will continue that research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he has been accepted to a seven-year Accelerated B.S./M.D. program with New Jersey Medical School while minoring in data science/analytics.
“Each of these scholarship recipients has the skills and drive to make a significant impact in our research labs, hospitals, restaurants and countless other workplaces throughout our state; we are thankful to the donors and the NJAC Foundation for maintaining a scholarship program that celebrates them and supports their further development,” said Dr. James Pedersen, superintendent of Essex County Schools of Technology and president of NJCCVTS.
Sponsor a scholarship
With this year’s scholarships, the NJAC Foundation has now distributed nearly $700,000 to county vocational-technical school graduates. Any company interested in providing a scholarship should contact Donnadio at jdonnadio@njac.org.
Conversation starter
This series on education and industry is presented by the New Jersey Council of County Vocational-Technical Schools.
