2009 Vol 3 No 1

       First Quarter Newsletter to our Contributors

Inspiring Hope and Confidence

"A tough market for graduates" is the headline in today's Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in a story about tough times ahead for this year's graduating class at Franklin Pierce University. Imagine what is ahead for those not even finishing high school, and for those with serious disadvantages but good potential who do graduate but lack the support necessary to be able go on to postsecondary education. These students are the precious resources ConVal Community Scholarship Foundation Dollars for Scholars® (CVCSF) is here to help and, through their success stories, to inspire hope and confidence in others with disadvantages and potential for success. Overcoming disadvantages and winning in hard times: Ten CVCSF grant winners in ConVal classes of 2007 and 2008 are proving that disadvantages can be overcome and more. CVCSF identifies disadvantaged students with potential for success early in their senior year. Giving them encouragement, mentoring and financial assistance plus monitoring their progress after high school makes a big difference. Their 100% success rate, so far, says that this is so. Five have won our top scholarship grants of just over 50% of New Hampshire Community College tuition. Four received awards of $500 (of which two were supplemented based on first semester performance). One was the winner of a $250 stipend by virtue of having qualified at the first level of competition. The first of these ten graduated in October 2008. Two will graduate in May 2009. Four are in four year baccalaureate degree programs.  Three are in associate degree or job training certificate programs. All are succeeding. Two have had dean's list recognition in their first semesters. CVCSF is making a difference, inspiring hope and confidence and raising the expectations of disadvantaged ConVal region students. Report on Winners in the ConVal Class of 2008 CVCSF awarded six grants to Class of 2008 graduates. All were chosen on the basis of the particular disadvantages they had to overcome, demonstrated desire to achieve and potential for success. They were given mentoring and the limited financial assistance CVCSF is able to provide. Each case is unique. Morgan Boutwell, Justina Lafreniere and Diana Lavoie, all in four year baccalaureate programs, won two-year $5,800 scholarships. (That they are in four year programs is coincidental. Half of those who have won our support so far have entered two-year associate degree or job training certificate programs.) Featured 2008 Award Winner Diana Lavoie (Peterborough), CVCSF Peterborough Lions Club scholar, is making great progress at Plymouth State University toward her degree in Chemistry Education. Diana was a slow starter. She did not have good grades at ConVal High School until she found herself and her desire to learn in Arthur Giovannangeli's chemistry class in her junior year. On her application she wrote "I want to be as good a teacher as Mr. Gio. He was the greatest ..." She is off to an excellent start at Plymouth State University and was on the Dean's List at the end of her first semester. She has been accepted as an exchange student at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana  and will be there for her sophomore year. She and her mother will meet with her Peterborough Lions Club scholarship supporters in June.     Morgan Boutwell (Peterborough), CVCSF Monadnock Rotary Club Scholar, is at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, working on her bachelor's degree in Accounting. She had very good grades in her fist semester (four A's and a B) and found a part-time internship at TD Banknorth in Amherst. She and her mother will visit her sponsoring Monadnock Rotary Club in Dublin again in June. Erika Rogers, Development Director of Dublin School, is Morgan's assigned monitor. Justina Lafreniere (Antrim) is enrolled in the baccalaureate nursing program at UMASS Dartmouth Her mentors at ConVal High School monitoring her progress tell us that UMASS Dartmouth acknowledges that Justina is a hardworking student who has overcome serious obstacles to enroll in college. The College Now program there has awarded her an additional scholarship grant for having been so successful in her freshman year. Other awards given to 2008 ConVal High School graduates. Benjamin Holt (Bennington) is in the associate degree program in Animation and Graphic Game Programming at the New Hampshire Technical Institute (NHTI) in Concord. Jie Lu (Dublin) is in the Associate Degree program in Hotel Administration at NHTI. She came to Dublin from China to start her junior year with little English language experience. She did so well (three A's and one B) in her first semester at NHTI that her award was increased to $500 per semester instead of first semester only. (Her story was featured in our December 2008 newsletter.) Nick Dostaler (Bennington) has applied his $250 stipend to enter the Auto Mechanic job training certificate program at the Universal Technical Institute in Norwood MA. Update on CVCSF Scholars in the Class of 2007  We reported in our December newsletter that our four Class of 2007 grant winners are all doing well. Lee Corigliano had graduated from his Auto Mechanic training certificate and was well employed in Hillsboro. Alycia Mudrack is expected to have her Associate degree in Juvenile Justice from Hesser College in May. Priscilla Coffill, also supported by Monadnock Community Hospital, will have her nursing associate degree at NHTI in May. Eryn Tupper continues in her art education program at BYU - Idaho with great enthusiasm. 2009 Fundraising:  Nobody expects fundraising to be easy in 2009. Thanks to a $10,000 donation from the Maude Corser Family Trust and (so far) forty-one others in response to our January and March appeals, we have had a good first quarter. Our collection jars, now in fourteen locations, are doing better than expected. At their present rate we hope they will pay for one of our top awards. We need to raise $9,500 more and we don't expect to find that much in our collection jars. New initiatives are planned to get us to our goal. Note the new brochure enclosed with this newsletter. Missed opportunity: In a March 26 letter to the editor of the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, Sharon resident Barton Goodeve noted that the "economy" was "cited by many as the reason they voted against bonding $5.5 million for school district facilities projects.  It is likely that a new bond would have less cost than the current bond it would have replaced." It would have had a miniscule effect on the current budget. Funds from the new bond would have been injected into the local economy creating construction sector jobs and badly needed work would have been completed at lower cost than is likely to be possible in the future. We lost a social and economic benefit opportunity that would have happened at little or no increased cost to tax payers. You are encouraged to attend school board meetings. See calendar at www.conval.edu, information, monthly events.  CVCSF Help wanted: We want to add a Publicity and Public Information officer to serve as a member of our board of directors. We have wonderful stories to tell and we need someone to help us spread the word. For inquiries about this volunteer position contact us at info [at] cvcsf [dot] org. A return addressed envelope is enclosed for your questions and comments.