The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2007

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 7 A F S A N E W S A FSA is proud to announce the 26 Foreign Service high school seniors selected as the 2007 AFSAMerit Awardwinners. These one-time- only awards, totaling $28,500, were bestowed onMay 4. AFSA con- gratulates these students for their academic and artistic achievements. Winners received $1,500 and honorable-mentionwinners received $500. The best-essay winner and the community-service winner each received $250 for those awards. Judges were individuals from the Foreign Service community. This year, 65 students competed for the 15 AcademicMerit Awards. They were judged on their grade-point average, SAT scores, essays, let- ters of recommendation, extracurricular activities and any special cir- cumstances. From the Academic Merit Award applicants, the commit- tee selected a best-essay winner (Emma Cunningham) and a commu- nity-service winner (Elizabeth Burns). Sixteen students submitted art merit applications in one of the fol- lowing categories: visual arts, musical arts, drama or creative writing. Applicants were judged on their submission, letters of recommendation and essays. Erica Wickman was selected as the Art Merit Award win- ner for her musical arts submission, a clarinet performance. Sarah Medeiros and Estrella Pittman were selected for Art Merit Award hon- orable mentions for their creative writing and visual arts submissions, respectively. AFSAhas established six academicmerit named scholarships to date, and these awards are bestowed on the highest-scoring students. The recip- ients of these scholarships were: Yannik Pitcan, for the Association of the American Foreign Service Worldwide Scholarship; Maxwell Chang, for the John andPriscilla Becker Family Scholarship; JasonMeer, for the John C. Leary Memorial Scholarship; Elizabeth Aloisi and Hannah Skop, for the two Joanna and Robert Martin Scholarships; and AndrewKeith, for the Donald Spigler Memorial and Maria Giuseppa Spigler Scholarship. In addition to themerit scholarships, AFSA bestows between 50 and 60 financial aid scholarships each year. For the 2006-2007 academic year, 53 students received financial aid scholarships totaling $125,000. For more information on the AFSA Scholarship Program, or how to establish a named scholarship, contact Lori Dec at (202) 944-5504, or dec@afsa.org. Please visit our Web site at www.afsa.org/scholar/. 2007 AFSA Merit Award Winners KatherineAloisi —daughterof Jonathan Aloisi (State) and WenyiShu(State);graduateof Hong Kong International School; attending the Univer- sityofVirginia,withnodeclared major. PaulArmstrong —sonofAlina and John (State) Armstrong; graduateofRichardMontgom- eryHighSchool,Rockville,Md.; attending the University of St. Thomas, majoring in interna- tional business. Derek Carey — son of Debra Henke (FAS) and Stephen Carey; graduate of Yorktown High School, Arlington, Va.; attending Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, majoring in chemistry and biology. Susannah Kroeber — daugh- ter of Deborah Seligsohn (State) and Arthur Kroeber; graduate of the International School of Beijing; attending BrownUniversity, majoring in microbiology. JasonMeer — son of Richelle and Jeffery (State)Meer; grad- uate of Montgomery Blair HighSchool,SilverSpring,Md.; John C. Leary Scholar; attend- ing Duke University, majoring in public policy/economics. SarahHaviland —daughterof Patricia and Andrew (State) Haviland; graduate of Oakton High School, Vienna, Va.; attending the University of Virginia, majoring in biolo- gy/pre-med. Sonia Jarrett — daughter of Ann Yen and Kenneth Jarrett (State); graduate of Shanghai American School; attending Cornell University, pursuing a liberal arts degree. Andrew Keith — son of Jan (State) and James (State) Keith;graduateofSouthLakes High School, Reston, Va.; Donald Spigler Memorial and Marie Giuseppa Spigler Scho- lar;attendingtheUniversityof Virginia, majoring in engineer- ing. ElizabethAloisi —daughterof Jonathan Aloisi (State) and Wenyi Shu (State); graduate of Hong Kong International School; Joanna and Robert MartinScholar; attending the University of Virginia, withno declared major. Academic Merit Winners Maxwell Chang — son of StephanieSalmonandMichael Chang (State); graduate of James Madison High School, Vienna, Va.; John and Priscilla BeckerFamilyScholar;attend- ing theUniversity of Southern California, majoring in chem- istry.