Front Royal Rotary distributes $20,000 in scholarship funds to four local high school graduates

Four county high school students equally shared $20,000 in scholarship money, courtesy of the Rotary Club of Front Royal. The checks and certificates were distributed Friday, May 14, at Rotary’s regular weekly meeting at the Villa Avenue Community Center.

The cash awards – most of it raised by the club’s annual golf tournament which this year comes around on May 27 at the Shenandoah Valley Golf Club – went to, in order of presentation: Mackenzi Bates, Morgan Berry, John “Jackson” Pond, and Michael Kelly.

Front Royal Rotary scholarship winners, left to right: John ‘Jackson’ Pond, Morgan Berry, Mackenzi Bates, and Michael Kelly. Each received a check for $5,000. Royal Examiner Photo by Roger Bianchini

Dr. Robert Meltvedt, chairman of the Rotary Club’s Scholarship Committee for 21 years of its 22-year history, said at the scholarship presentations by club President Derrick Leisure that some $195,000 has been raised for the scholarship fund over the history of his committee. Each year, local high schools, including private institutions, are invited to nominate students for the scholarships.

The four teenagers, two girls, and two boys were on hand to receive their awards, along with their parents, each giving short speeches of thanks after describing their future ambitions as they proceed to their chosen colleges.

Pond graduated at the top of his senior class at Warren County High School and said he was aiming at becoming a career officer in the U.S. Coast Guard. He will attend the Coast Guard Academy in the fall.

Bates, described as an exemplary student, well respected by her peers and teachers at WCHS, plans a career in nursing and will attend Shenandoah University.

Skyline High grad Berry is off to the University of Virginia in the fall, planning to major in Global Development Studies. Her long-term goal is to obtain a job with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

And Kelly, a history buff graduating from WCHS, aims at majoring in Political Science at the College of Charleston, following which he says he “aims to make the world a better place.”