Students Honored

Five local seniors get scholarships at chamber breakfast

By RICHARD NILSEN, The Leader-Herald
JOHNSTOWN — Playing in a creek behind her house paid off for Alexandria Stacey Kuhl.

The Broadalbin-Perth High School student, who played during most of her childhood in the creek, pursued a three-year research project in that same creek in high school.

After spending hours working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on her creek research, she published her findings, earning college credit at the University of Albany. She presented her research to the 18th Annual Intel Greater Capital Region Science and Engineering Fair and Science Congress in March and won awards for it.

Her research project was part of the reason Kuhl received a $1,000 scholarship from the Fulton County Regional Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Wednesday.

She was among five seniors who won the $1,000 scholarships at a Student Recognition Breakfast.

“This scholarship will help offset the price of education without so much worry about money,” Kuhl said. “I appreciate the Fulton County chamber helping youth pursue their educational goals.”

Kuhl plans to pursue environmental engineering at the State University of New York at Brockport or Geneseo, she said.

The ceremony at Fulton-Montgomery Community College was attended by more than 250 people.

Chamber President Wally Hart said the annual scholarship fund began in 1989 and grew from two $500 scholarships to the five $1,000 scholarships. The money comes from proceeds of the chamber’s annual golf tournament, which is scheduled for Aug. 20 this year.

Other scholarship winners were Jaime Donnan and Mitch Rovito of Mayfield High School, and Michelle Pauline Frenssen and Travis Bevington of Johnstown High School.

Hart said the chamber received more than 50 applications, and he was glad not to be on the scholarship committee, which had the tough job of choosing the recipients based on scholastics, community involvement, school activities, economic need and a 500-word essay on what the scholarship would mean to them.

Donnan intends to pursue a major in French and business at Houghton College, Allegany County, to use translation in business as well as church missions. She has been on mission trips in Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica.

Donnan’s French teacher at Mayfield High School, Sarah Matarazzo, said, “Her academic potential can only be matched by her dedication to helping others.”

Besides winning many awards, such as her high school’s Key Club Service Award and a Russell Sage Scholars Award, Donnan has mentored three elementary schoolchildren as a big sister since 2005.

“This money will definitely help pay expenses,” Donnan said. “It will also allow me to do extra things overseas.”

Frenssen agreed the money she won would help her education.

“This money will help give me the opportunity to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor,” she said. “I love chemistry.”

Frenssen is salutatorian at Johnstown High School and decided on a medical career after working in the medical imaging department at St. Mary’s Hospital in the Summer Scholars program before her junior year.

Bevington is valedictorian of his Johnstown High School class, where he is president of the National Honor Society. He plans to major in college in biomedical engineering at one of four possible universities, including Harvard.

Bevington said receiving a scholarship like this “makes you want to go out and do well so you can come back to the community and give back.”

His science instructor, Hans Litz, wrote in his reference,” I have never had a student with greater potential as a student and as a person.”

Rovito said the scholarship would be a “big help going to the Rochester Institute of Technology, which is a little more expensive.” He will study packaging science.

“RIT is one of three schools in the country with that major,” he said.

Rovito has been named a scholar-athlete throughout high school and is a U.S. Achievement Academy Award winner.

Many of the students in the audience were top achievers in their schools.

Among them was Northville High School senior Heather Nelson, who plans to study biochemistry at Elmira College in Chemung County.

“I want to do medical research looking into cures for things like cancer,” Nelson said. “I’m glad to be honored here and glad to get some breakfast.”

Gloversville High School senior Miriam Mustafa, also in attendance Wednesday, expects to enroll in the nursing program at FMCC in Johnstown in the fall. Over the summer, she plans to travel.

“I will be going overseas to Palestine and my family’s homeland on the West Bank,” she said.