Welcome to CVCSF
Conval Community Scholarship Foundation Dollars for Scholars is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 to provide hope and confidence with community support to help more Conval regional students achieve their potential.
We invite you to read about our scholarship winners, our unique approach to choosing and monitoring our winners, and our fundraising activities. Together we can address the need for inspiring more students to work hard in school and build the character, drive and support necessary to continue their education beyond Conval.
Samantha Mannion on the Isle of Shoals
Samantha Mannion knew that becoming a marine biologist would be a challenge, but had no inkling about the adventure she would have in June.
Mannion, of West Peterborough, a recipient of a ConVal Community Scholarship Foundation Dollars for Scholars scholarship, is studying marine and fresh water biology at the University of New Hampshire. From May 31 to June 28 she took part in an intensive eight-credit field marine science course presented by the Shoals Marine Laboratory, which included time in the field, as well as the lab and the classroom.
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| Samantha Mannion of West Peterborough, right, and Michelle Bibeau, also a UNH student, studied marine science on the Isles of Shoals this summer. |
She and four other students lived in a dorm on Appledore Island, one of the Isles of Shoals, a group of small, rocky islands off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire.
The students, their two professors and a teachers’ aide worked together all day, every day from breakfast until 10:30 or 11 p.m. On Sunday they got a small break, not starting work until 10 a.m. The students helped each other, not only with their lab work, but also in carrying the 5-gallon buckets they used to collect specimens at the seashore. Each day’s schedule was built around low tide, during which the students would spend three or four hours gathering specimens -- including algae, krill, arthropods, urchins and other intertidal organisms -for study back in the lab.
On Appledore Island, where they did most of their work, the weather was generally sunny and mild, though sometimes windy. One day, the students traveled to neighboring Smuttynose Island to see if specimens different than those on Appledore Island could be found there in a surge channel – a narrow, U-shaped inlet on the rocky shore. Because such channels are narrow, waves create strong currents that reverse rapidly as the water level changes.
New Award for Dublin’s Chinese American Scholar
The ConVal Community Scholarship Foundation Dollars for Scholars (CVCSF) is proud of the progress made by its Dublin Chinese-American Scholar, Jie Lu. Step-daughter of Tom Kennedy, Manager of the Dublin Recycling Center, she came to Dublin from China with her mother, DaoNing Wang, in the summer of 2006. She started classes at ConVal High School in her junior year with the considerable challenge of having to learn to communicate in the English language while also adjusting to a major change in culture in coming to America and to ConVal High School.Jie Lu was one of five specially challenged ConVal High School graduates in the Class of 2008 given CVCSF scholarship awards. She, as do all of who receive these awards, qualified for financial and mentoring assistance on the basis of financial need, other challenges faced and apparent potential for postsecondary education success. She enrolled in the New Hampshire Technical Institute (NHTI) Associate Degree program in Hotel Management in Concord. While working part time for the last two years, last week she successfully completed her fourth semester. She needs to complete one more semester to earn her associate degree. To take advantage of an extraordinary opportunity for a five month internship at a Marriott Hotel in Nan Ning, her native city in China, in the province of Guang Xi, she returned last Monday to live with her father until November. This internship was arranged for her through NHTI. She expects to return to Dublin to start her final semester at NHTI in January, assured of a small supplemental scholarship grant from CVCSF for her final semester. After graduation next year she plans to seek employment in a hotel in New Hampshire.
CVCSF is pleased with Jie Lu’s accomplishments. It is also greatly impressed by the extraordinary scope of education experience she is having in preparing for a career in hotel management where opportunities may abound for qualified professionals with international experience.
Each year CVCSF awards scholarship and mentoring grants to six or more seriously challenged graduates who, without this assistance, might never have an opportunity for postsecondary education. Scholarship awards of up to $6,200 to six ConVal High School graduates in the Class of 2010 will be announced in June.
Total fundraising surpasses $200,000
A milestone was reached in November this year with the receipt of a donor check that lifted total gifts to the Conval Community Scholarship Fund over the $200,000 mark in just the third year of its existence. The $100 check from Dr. John and Stephanie Minteer of Jaffrey was one of dozens of generous gifts made by members of the greater Conval community this year. It was the 351st such gift received since August of 2006.
Other than a match and small operational grants from the New Hampshire Charitable and two local foundations, the bulk of funds used to sponsor our scholars for two years of post-secondary education comes for gifts like the Minteer's. We are grateful to all of our donors, large and small.
The current goal of CVCSF is to create long-term stability by building an endowment fund that was started last year. We invite your participation. If you would like to learn more, please contact any board member.
