LYNN – The Rotary Club has announced the 2022 winners of Rotary’s Richard Maloney and Robert Hastings Memorial Scholarships.
Scholarship winners are Lynn English seniors Vatana Chen and Nantenen Kiata, along with Abigail Constine from St. Mary’s, Lynn Classical’s Prisila Romero, and KIPP Academy’s Stacey Munoz Arreaga.
“I know I can speak for the committee members when I say how the selection process gets more challenging every year,” said Ray Bastarache, a longtime Lynn educator and scholarship committee chair. “Vatana, Nantenen, Abigail, Prisila, and Stacey had an average GPA of 4.25, with a total of 35 Advance Placement or honors level course over their last three years of high school. They captained sports teams, led school clubs and organizations, and all five were very involved in community service. The Lynn community has a lot to be proud of.”
The Lynn Scholarship Committee reviewed approximately 30 applications from area high schools attended by Lynn students before finally coming to consensus on the five winners.
Chen ranks fifth out of 447 students in her senior class. She participated in volleyball, tennis, mock trial, Friend’s of Rachel, and Girls’ Inc. Vatana has served as president of the Student Council for four years and is headed to Tufts University to study biochemistry. Vatana’s guidance counselor wrote in his support letter, “There is no doubt that this National Honor Society member is more than prepared for the greater academic challenges that await her in college.”
Kiata came to the United States and Lynn English from Guinea, West Africa. She spoke only French as a freshman and struggled to make friends and socialize. She began to evolve as a sophomore. She joined Friends of Rachel, the Yleana Leadership Foundation, and Girls Inc. She ran indoor track and became involved in the Transition Club whose purpose is to facilitate the integration of immigrant students into Lynn English. She ranks 21st in her class and has a GPA of 4.1. Nantenen is headed to UMass-Amherst to study neurosciences and pre-med.
Arreaga is the founder and president of Youth in Charity. She epitomizes volunteerism, regularly volunteering at the Salvation Army, the Haven Project, and My Brother’s Table. She also serves as a youth board member for the International Red Cross. She played soccer at KIPP. She is trilingual (Spanish, English, and French), and her GPA is 3.6 with mostly honors classes. She plans to study political science at Suffolk University and is a first-generation college student. Her parents immigrated to the United States from Mexico.
Romero is hard-working and humble. She describes herself as the “leader” of her eight younger cousins and brother. Her parents and relatives were born and raised in El Salvador. She ranks 16th in her class of 435 and has a GPA of 4.46. She works at CVS as a front store associate and pharmacy technician and has been accepted to UMass-Boston where she hopes to have a career in nursing.
Constine, a National Honor Society student, is headed to St. Anselm’s College to study nursing. In her student essay, she wrote passionately about the importance of perseverance and resilience when dealing with disappointments. At St. Mary’s she played basketball and soccer. She belonged to Rachel’s Challenge, the Diversity Club and participated in peer tutoring. Her GPA is an impressive 4.55, and she ranks sixth in her class.
Magella Cantara can be reached at [email protected].
