The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2006

78 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / J U L Y - A UGU S T 2 0 0 6 A F S A N E W S A FSA is proud to announce the 22ForeignService high school seniors who were selected as the 2006 Merit Award winners. These one- time-only awards, totaling $26,500, were bestowed during Foreign Affairs Day May 5 at an AFSA ceremony and reception. AFSA congrat- ulates the students for their academic and artistic achievements. Winners received $1,500 awards and Honorable Mention winners received $500 awards. Judges were drawn from the Foreign Service community. This year, 42 students competed for the 15 Academic Merit Awards. Theywere judgedongradepoint average, ScholasticAssessmentTest scores, essays, letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities and any spe- cial circumstances. From the Academic Merit Award applicants, a best- essaywinner ( JuliaWohlers ) anda community servicewinner ( Alexandra Noyes )were selected. The best essaywinner and community service award winner received $250. Julia’s essay can be found on AFSA’s Web site at www.afsa.org/scholar/index.cfm. Nine students submitted art merit applications under one of the fol- lowing categories: visual arts, musical arts, drama or creative writing. Art applicants were judged on their art submission, letters of recommenda- tion and essays. BenjaminMcAllister was selected as theArtMerit Award winner for his euphonium performance musical arts submission. StephanieKranstover was selectedas theArtMeritAwardhonorablemen- tion winner for her visual arts acrylic paintings and charcoal drawings. Six academicmerit named scholarships have been established to date, and these awards are bestowedon the highest-scoring students. The recip- ients of these scholarships were: Katherine Rock for the Associates of the AmericanForeignServiceWorldwide Scholarship; LauraDownes for the John andPriscilla Becker Family Scholarship; TheresaSmyth for the John C. Leary Memorial Scholarship; Melinda Kilner and Christian Ternus for the Joanna and Robert Martin Scholarships; and MatthewDantas- McCutcheon for the Donald Spigler and Maria Giuseppa Spigler Scholarship. FormoreinformationontheAFSAMeritAwards,theAFSAScholarship Program, or howtoestablishanamed scholarship, contact LoriDec at (202) 944-5504, or dec@afsa.org, or visit www.afsa.org/scholar/index.cfm. 2006 AFSA Merit Award Winners RichardBrown: sonofDolores (State) and Graham Brown (deceased);graduateof James MadisonHigh School, Vienna, Va.; attending Columbia Uni- versity, majoring in pre-med/ political science. Joel Christensen: son of Brenda and W. Brent (State) Christensen; graduate of the InternationalSchoolofBeijing, China; attending Brigham Young University, majoring in computer science. EionDando: sonofLori(State) andStephenDando;graduate of Copenhagen International School, Denmark; attending MacalesterCollege,majoringin engineering. Katherine Rock: daughter of Anthony (State, retired) Rock and Sherry Barndollar Rock; graduate of McLean High School,Va.;attendingtheUni- versity of Virginia, majoring in biology/pre-med; recipient of theAssociatesoftheAmerican Foreign Service Worldwide Merit Scholarship. Stephanie Ruse: daughter of Edward (FCS-retired) and Kathleen Ruse, graduate of Ravenscroft School, Raleigh, N.C.; attending Washington University College of Arts and Sciences in St. Louis. JosephMuhm: son of Cather- ine Nemmert and Daniel Muhm (State); graduate of Taipei American School, Tai- wan; attending the University of Washington in Seattle, majoring in aerospace engi- neering. AlexandraNoyes: daughterof Julieta (State) and Nicholas (State) Noyes; graduate of James Madison High School, Vienna, Va.; attending the University of Virginia. Alex- andra is the AFSA winner of theCommunityServiceAward. Erin O’Grady: daughter of DeborahGuido-O’Grady(State) and Daniel O’Grady (State); graduate of Anglo-American School,Moscow;attendingthe College of William and Mary, majoring in pre-med. DavidBertsch: sonof Charles (FAS) and Donna Bertsch; graduate of McLean High School, McLean, Va.; attend- ing Elon University, majoring in engineering. Academic Merit Winners MatthewDantas-McCutcheon: son of Elizabeth de Lima Dan- tas and Robert McCutcheon (State); graduate of DeMatha HighSchoolinHyattsville,Md.; attending the University of Maryland, majoring in aero- spaceengineering;recipientof theAFSADonaldS.Spiglerand Maria Giuseppa Spigler Aca- demic Merit Scholarship.