The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2016

AFSA NEWS community service activities, and need-based financial aid scholarships for undergradu- ate college study. We were pleased to welcome five of the 2016 merit award recipients (of the 22 winners), who currently reside in theWashington D.C. area. All of the winners were celebrated at this event. (See pages 82-83 for short biog- raphies of the 22 merit award winners.) Winners and Donors Celebrated Three local merit award donors (of the 10 named awards) and five local financial aid scholarship donors (of the 65 annual and perpetual current and memorial schol- arships) also attended the reception. Presiding over the event, AFSA President Ambassador Barbara Stephenson and AFSA Scholarship Commit- tee Chair Ambassador (ret.) Lange Schermerhorn pre- sented certificates and med- als to merit award winners Isa- bella Blackman, Helen Froats, Karl Keat, Sarah Scroggs and Rachel Silverman. Participating in the cere- mony were AFSAmerit award donors Mr. and Mrs. John and Priscilla Becker, Ms. Gayle Nelson and Mr. Jim Elmore. Financial aid scholarship donors were represented by Mrs. Marita Dillery; Mrs. Beth Keene, her son Garrett, and AFSAGeneral Counsel Sharon Papp; Mr. Eric D.K. Melby; Ms. Constanza Valdes and her children, Mariana and Sylvia Patterson; and Ms. Caroline Van Hollen. In 2016, AFSA awarded $45,500 in prizes, including 10 sponsored awards which are bestowed on the highest- scoring students. Four Foreign Affairs Agencies Represented The AFSA Scholarship Committee is particularly pleased to note that this year’s awardees included children of employees from the four largest foreign affairs agencies. The Commercial Service boasted three recipi- ents, followed by USAID with two winners and the Foreign Agricultural Service with one, along with 15 winners from the State Department. “It is a great pleasure and honor to give these awards Merit Awards Continued from page 77 (l-r) Top: Helen Froats with Ambassador (ret.) Lange Schermerhorn; Isabella Blackman; Rachel Silverman with distinguished donor Gayle Nelson; Bottom: Rachel and Young-Mi Silverman; Embassy Risk Management donor Jim Elmore, Amb. Schermerhorn, Dr. Josie Keat, Karl Keat, Stephen Keat and AFSA President Amb. Barbara Stephenson; AFSA State Vice President Angie Bryan meets with proud parents. to children of Foreign Service families, and we are delighted to see such heavy interest and participation in our scholar- ship program,” said Angie Bryan, AFSA’s State vice president. A total of 117 high school seniors submitted applica- tions that were judged by the seven-member AFSA Scholar- ship Committee along with volunteers from the Foreign Service community. AFSA extends special thanks to the 14 volunteers who generously gave their time for this year’s judging. Students competed for $1,000 or $2,500 academic, art and community service awards. All art applicants sub- mitted their application in one of the following areas: music, performing arts, visual arts or creative writing. In the last 25 years, the AFSA Scholarship Program has bestowed college aid totaling more than $4.1 million dollars on more than 2,200 FS children. This has been accomplished with the generous help of individuals, affiliated organizations such as DACOR and AAFSW, and corporate donors such as BlueCross BlueShield Federal Employee Health Benefit Program and Embassy Risk Management. No AFSAmember dues are used to support AFSA scholar- ship activity. For more information on the AFSA Scholarship Pro- gram and to view the AFSA art winners’ submissions, please visit www.afsa.org/scholar. n —Lori Dec, AFSA Scholarship Director AFSA/JOAQUINSOSA THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2016 81