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.