Zonta Club of Jamestown proudly announced the local 2019 scholarship award winners at a special dinner held April 17th at the Marvin House.  The three scholarship awards presented were the Verna Nelson Scholarship, the Nell Newton Scholarship, and the Anne H. Crowe Scholarship.

The Verna Nelson Scholarship is a financial award of $1000 based on merit, presented to a female student in her undergraduate Junior or Senior year or a female student at the graduate level with academic achievement and involvement in extra-curricular activities. This year’s Verna Nelson Scholarship recipient was Amanda Swanson, daughter of Meri and Bill Swanson. She also is sister to an older brother, Ben.  Amanda is a 2015 graduate of Maple Grove and has graduated from Ohio Northern University with a BS in Biology, a minor in Spanish and Chemistry.  She will be attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the fall for dentistry. She developed the Spanish club while at Ohio Northern and was active in the Professional Association of Women in Science. She has shown dogs since she was 9 years old and is currently a Judge for Junior Handling and mentors young women in showing dogs.  Her advice to the audience for achievement, was to constantly be “pushing yourself outside your comfort zone”.

The Nell Newton Scholarship is a financial award of $1000 based on merit and need presented to a female furthering her education with the intention of making business her profession. The Nell Newton Scholarship recipient was Hannah Roush, daughter of Daniel and Marcy Roush. Hannah is also the big sister to Hailey and Hayden. Hannah is in the top of her class at Chautauqua Lake Central School.  She has been active in soccer, baseball, High School Bowl, school musical, music (clarinet and guitar) and has helped to start an acapella group at CLCS “On That Note”. She has also served on the year book committee, National Honor Society, and coaching girl’s youth baseball.  Hannah will be attending St. Bonaventure in the fall with a 4+4 agreement with LeCom, with a future goal of being in business as an orthodontist.

The Anne H. Crowe Scholarship is a financial award of $1000 to assist a female with a high school diploma or GED who is furthering her education to improve her career opportunities after an absence from school. The Anne H. Crowe award was presented to Stacy Chase.  Stacy is mom to Garrett, Dawson, and Dylan and wife of Jeff Chase.  She has worked the past 10 years for the Pine Valley Central School system as the secretary in the Counseling Office. While touring colleges with her sons, she decided she wanted to further her education past her degree from JCC in Human Services.  The experience she received at PVCS made her realize she enjoyed working with kids and likes what she has been doing. Stacy has seen what the counselors do with the students, and she will be going back to school for a counseling degree to also work with adolescents.  Stacy wants “to be an example to students and her own kids that it’s never too late to make a change.  That’s it’s okay to not know what you want to do right out of high school.”

Zonta Club awards several $1,000 scholarships every year to local female students and women returning to school.  For more information on Zonta and the mission to empower women through service and advocacy, visit ZontaJamestown.org.