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U-46 Students Awarded Dr. King Scholarships
Jan. 18, 2020
Six students from School District U-46 were honored Saturday as recipients of the Dr. Martin Luther King Scholarship during the City of Elgin’s weekend of activities celebrating the civil rights leader.
The students were celebrated at the City of Elgin’s annual Prayer Breakfast at Elgin Community College. They will also be a part of the 9th annual MLK Youth Leadership Conference being held Monday at the Ed Shock Centre of Elgin. The 2020 theme for the weekend celebration is “Give us the Ballot: Voting is the Foundation Stone for Political Action.”
Each recipient of a Dr. King scholarship will receive $1,000. The committee that chose the winners said, “We are proud to have them represent Dr. King’s legacy in achieving higher education and becoming leaders in our communities now and in the future.”
The Dr. King scholarship recipients (pictured left to right) are:
Monserrat Ponce: Monserrate attends Elgin High School and is planning to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She will major in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences.
Ethan Hinds: Ethan attends Larkin High School and has been accepted at Illinois State University at Normal where he will pursue a degree in Computer Science.
Aryanna Williams: Aryanna attends South Elgin High School and has been accepted into DePaul University in Chicago and plans to pursue a degree in Business Marketing/Management.
Christian Montes: Christian attends Bartlett High School and has been accepted into the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he plans to major in Finance.
Sharon Celestine: Sharon (not pictured) attends Streamwood High School and plans on attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where she will major in Aviation Flight.
Marteena Mendel-Duckins: Marteena (not pictured) attends Larkin High School and plans on attending the American University of Paris, where she will pursue a degree in Middle Eastern Studies & Theater.
Sharon Celestine and Christian Montes were also chosen as the inaugural recipients of the Ronald E. Raglin Memorial Award. Mr. Raglin, who passed away in August 2019, served as School District U-46’s Assistant Superintendent of Educational Support Programs and Alignment. He was awarded the City of Elgin’s 2019 Dr. King Humanitarian Award for his work toward educational equity.
While that award does not come with a monetary prize, Sue Schulz, a member of the MLK awards committee, said these students are being “lifted up for their social justice volunteering.”