LYNN — School Committee member Brian Castellanos has awarded scholarships to 16 recent high school graduates from his 2021 COVID-19 Redemption Scholarship program.
Castellanos began this scholarship last year after he saw how COVID-19 negatively affected the graduating class of 2020, stripping them from annual events such as prom and senior week, and altering their senior year experience.
This motivated Castellanos to do something to honor and recognize the senior class, whose resilience and determination he said was inspiring.
He decided to run a virtual marathon around the city, which he also ran this past June, to raise the funds for the scholarship. Since its inception last year, Castellanos has been able to raise around $17,000.
This scholarship, he said, focuses on city youth and was created to benefit them; in May, he appointed three Lynn high school students as ambassadors to support his youth scholarship and help create the criteria and application process.
Carlos Prudencio (English), Sailor Brinkler (Classical) and Brian Lopez (Lynn Vocational Technical Institute) worked with Castellanos to create an essay prompt asking applicants to explain how COVID-19 affected them and how they overcame it.
They reviewed about 40 applications together and were originally going to award 12 recipients, but Castellanos said there were so many great candidates that they decided to choose 16. Prudencio, Brinkler and Lopez were three of the recipients.
“The students are remarkable,” Castellanos said. “All of the recipients are so deserving.”
The scholarship is unrestricted and applicants do not have to be attending college in the fall to apply. Castellanos said they had applicants from Lynn Tech who were going to a trade school and right into the workforce, so he was happy to help anyone who needed it.
Learning about the applicants’ experiences during COVID-19, Castellanos said, was eye-opening and left him with a token of respect and gratitude for their triumph and leadership.
“I’m humbled and grateful to have the opportunity to work with (and help) these kids,” he said. “I don’t ever plan to stop giving back. Giving back is a part of my nature.”
Castellanos extended his appreciation to the Lynn Business Education Foundation, which assisted him with the funding and scholarship, as well as the city and everyone who contributed.
“It takes a village,” he said. “The city of Lynn stepped up big for these seniors.”
