Seniors Awarded Scholarships in Annual Ceremony

Over one hundred scholarships were awarded to seniors in the auditorium on May 30 at the annual Scholarship Awards ceremony. Donors from local businesses and organizations helped present scholarships to those who applied, giving students help with college tuition, fees, or any post high school plans. 

Meredith Gerkens, K-12 Coordinator of School Counseling, made the opening remarks. She started off by thanking the donors for their generosity and highlighted the importance of their donations. The Chamber Singers performed songs and Gerckens said that this gave the singers an opportunity to show their gratitude for the community’s generosity.

Principal Denis Williams also made remarks before the ceremony started. He introduced this year’s Valedictorian Sydney Chang and Salutatorian Riley Sebastiano.

Students were called up from their seats to be given their award or scholarship. This gave them the opportunity to meet the donor and take a picture with their accomplishments. 

Senior Class President Cynthia DePersio attended the ceremony. DePersio was awarded the Principal’s Distinguished Service Award and was the recipient of the Unico Brian Piccolo Scholarship. “I plan on attending vet school after college,” Cynthia said. “There are a lot of expenses over the next four years, so scholarships like these will help me as I enter my first year of college.” Cynthia will be attending The College of New Jersey this upcoming Fall. 

Senior Sophia Demetroulakos was another recipient of a Unico Scholarship and also received the PTO Scholarship. Demetroulakos will be spending her next four years at Clemson University. “The funding from these scholarships are going to help provide me with comfort,” Sophia said. “It’ll help with my finances and I can buy myself a new Macbook and books for my classes.”  

To conclude the ceremony, Senior Becky Caporosa gave closing remarks representing the Class of 2024. She talked a little about her memories in Nutley and thanked the donors who had selected her and her peers for their financial support.