Thirteen Cheshire High School seniors have been selected to receive college scholarships administered by the Cheshire Education Foundation. “The Class of 2020 sadly may be missing out on many of the celebrations that traditionally mark the end of their high school careers, but we want to make sure that outstanding students are recognized and receive the financial assistance that they will need as they head off to college,” said Jane Leukart, CEF chair.

Every spring the Cheshire Education Foundation works with the guidance department at Cheshire High which gathers the applications. The CEF then appoints review panels for each of the nine scholarship programs that will judge the applications based upon the criteria set forth for each scholarship. This year there were 218 applications.

“The Cheshire Public Schools are fortunate to have such an incredible partner in supporting our students during their public school education,” said Superintendent of Schools Jeff Solan. “The Cheshire Education Foundation scholarships support our graduates and they inspire our current students to pursue their dreams upon graduation from Cheshire High School.”

Four seniors will each receive $3,500 awards from the Mark S. Jardim Memorial Scholarship which is named for Mark Jardim, a 1980 graduate of Cheshire High who was senior vice president at Zurich Scudder Investments in New York when he died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. This year’s winners are Sanvi Bhardwaj of Country Club Road, Eliana Likorama of Pleasant Drive, Andrew Lou of Cedar Lane and Nancy Che of Ives Hill Court.

Nancy Che was also selected as the winner of the $2,000 Lombardo Family Scholarship. Nancy plans to attend the University of Connecticut where she will study nursing.

The Meaghan Welch Memorial Artistic Scholarship honors the memory of Ms. Welch, who was an accomplished artist and a 1997 Cheshire High School graduate. This year the winner of a $3,500 scholarship is Ryan Bobok of Vanessa Court who has enrolled at UConn in Storrs.

Two Cheshire High seniors, Scott Heseltine of Old Town Road and Charles Pettit of Bellamy Road, will each receive $2,000 grants from the Greg Schena Memorial Scholarship. Scott will continue his education at the University of Maryland and Charles at the University of Rhode Island. Greg Schena graduated from Cheshire High School in 2001. He taught physical education and was an athletic coach in the Cheshire and Wallingford Schools until his untimely death in 2010.

The Greg J. Florio, ED.D. Scholarship was endowed by Dr. Florio, who served the Cheshire Public Schools for 25 years, the last 12 as superintendent of schools. He left Cheshire in 2016 to become executive director of CREC, the Capital Regional Education Council. This year the $1,000 award will be presented to Mihiri Fernando of Roaring Brook Road who is off to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

The Don Wailonis Scholarship also pays tribute to a former Cheshire Public Schools administrator. In the course of his 35-year career Wailonis was supervisor for special education, assistant principal, and from 1992 until 2007, he was principal of Dodd Middle School. The scholarship program is sponsored by the Dodd PTA and this year will provide $500 awards each to Meredith Carson of Bethany Mountain Road and Michael Kozlowski of Marion Road.

The Chapman School Scholarship began in the year 2000, which was the fiftieth anniversary of the school’s founding in 1950. Each year an outstanding Cheshire High senior who attended Chapman School is presented with a $500 award. This year’s recipient is Jared Zanker of Redstone Drive who will continue his education at Western Connecticut State University.

The $1,000 Daniel P. Martinook Scholarship is awarded this year to Yuliana Tsapar of Pound Ridge Road who will be attending begin studying marketing management at UConn this fall. Daniel Martinook was a former teacher in the Cheshire Public Schools.

And the winner of the Cheshire Education Foundation General Scholarship in the amount of $1,000 is Jorja Markella of Waterbury Road, who this year served as president of the CHS chapter of the National Honor Society. Jorja will be a freshman at Bowdoin College this fall.

Dr. Barry Feldman, who oversees the Cheshire Education Foundation scholarship effort each year, extended his thanks on behalf of the CEF to all the generous contributors, “who have made it possible for us to provide these awards each year,” and to the guidance department at Cheshire High School for their help in the application and awards process. “I also want to sincerely thank each and every person who worked so diligently on the scholarship committees. We know that this is time-consuming and difficult since there were so many excellent candidates,” said Dr. Feldman.

Anyone interested in setting up a new scholarship program to honor a loved one can contact Dr. Feldman or Susan Generous at Cheshire High School. Dr. Feldman explained that the Cheshire Education Foundation handles the administration and selection process using criteria that each donor can specify for their award, and all donations are tax-free.