The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2014 57 AFSA NEWS On May 2, the American Foreign Service Associa- tion Scholarship Fund held its annual merit awards ceremony to announce the recipients of the 2014 AFSA Merit Awards. This year, $48,500 was bestowed on 27 Foreign Service high school seniors for their outstanding achieve- ments in academics and art. Each winner received $2,500, and honorable mentions received $750 to $1,000. (See pp. 58-59 for a listing of the winners.) Academic merit judges evaluated 78 students in the following areas: grade point average; standardized test scores; high-level courses taken; a Foreign Service- themed essay; student activi- ties and community service; and special circumstances, if any. The judges selected 13 winners, 10 honorable men- tions, one Best Essay (see p. 60) and one Community Service winner. The 16 art merit award applicants submitted work in one of the following catego- ries: visual arts, musical arts, performing arts or creative writing. The applicants were evaluated on the quality and creativity of their work, dedi- cation to their artistic pursuit and an essay. This year’s art merit winner, Rebecca Sarfati, was chosen for her poem, “Regression,” and short story, “Red.”Alison Dominguez and Copeland Smith both won honorable mention for their visual arts submissions. The AFSA Scholarship Program would also like to recognize its merit award named donors. To date, nine merit scholarships have been established by individuals or organizations. These awards, bestowed on the highest-scoring stu- dents, are: the John and Pris- cilla Becker Family Award, the Turner C. Cameron Jr. Memo- rial Award, the CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Federal Employee ProgramAward (two awards), the Embassy Risk Management Award, the John C. and Nancy S. Leary Memorial Award, the Joanna and Robert Martin Award (two awards), and the Donald S. Spigler Memorial and Maria Giuseppa Spigler Award. In addition to the merit awards program, 68 stu- dents received need-based, financial aid scholarships for undergraduate educa- tion. AFSA bestowed more than $184,000 during the 2013-2014 school year, with awards ranging from $1,000 to $4,000. This amount will increase to $3,000 to $5,000 for the 2014-15 school year. The recipients of the 2013-2014 financial aid scholarships can be found on the Scholarship website at: www.afsa.org/ scholar. The 2014-2015 finan- Presenting the 2014 AFSAMerit Award Winners cial aid scholarship recipients will be announced in August. As of this fall, the total aid awarded by the AFSA Schol- arship Program to members’ children will increase to $245,000 annually. This is in large part due to the contin- ued and generous support of AFSAmembers and individu- als throughout the Foreign Service community. For more information on the merit awards, applying for this benefit of AFSAmem- bership or contributing to the AFSA Scholarship Fund, visit www.afsa.org/scholar or contact Lori Dec at (202) 944-5504 or dec@afsa.org . n —Jonathan Crawford, Scholarship Assistant The local winners of the 2014 merit awards at the May 2 ceremony at AFSA. Back row: Benjamin “Phoenix” Morrison, Frank Keat, Timothy Kostelancik. Front row: Ambassador Lange Schermerhorn, chair of the AFSA Scholarship Committee; Grace Bachman; Olivia Sullivan; Maya Yu; and AFSA President Robert J. Silverman. AFSA SCHOLARSH I P PROGRAM ÁSGEIRSIGFÚSSON