2021-2022 Scholarship Committee Annual Report

THE 2021-2022 SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE REPORT

The Scholarship Committee, consisting of Helen Ju (new member this year), Elaine Rafferty and Sandy Stein, met on October 13 and 22, 2021 to plan the year.  Elaine Rafferty continued in her role as Chair.  Initial responsibilities were delegated: Helen would send out holiday cards to last year’s winners, Elaine would notify the school counselors that the Women’s College Club of Princeton would again be awarding scholarships in 2022, and Sandy would find out the timing of the schools’ spring breaks for our planning calendar. The Committee also updated the application form as needed, and Elaine sent emails to donors – Bob Hillier and Laura Marks (family of Marjory White) – thanking them for their past support and requesting their support again this year.  It is to be noted that this is the second year of the Katherine Ness Scholarship ($10,000 to be awarded over four years, $2,500 each year).  This also was the second year that the Ramona Segrest Peyton Memorial Scholarship would not be offered and not likely to be offered in the future.  

New member Kate Wood joined the Committee in January and was brought up-to-date on the work of the Committee. The President announced that the Executive Committee of the Board approved the addition of two newly named scholarships as part of the Women’s College Club of Princeton Scholarship Program.  These scholarships were in recognition of two outstanding members of the Club – Kathy Hutchins and Carol Stawski.  The new scholarships were included in the material forwarded to the schools in late January. In February, the Ju Family provided a generous $2,000 scholarship in their Mother’s name, the Chowsoon Chuang Ju Memorial Scholarship, this scholarship was added to the list of available scholarships and sent to the school counselors.  The Committee requested that the applications be returned to the counselors’ offices by March 28^th with every intention that the Committee would review the applications, hold interviews and finish the process in late April.  This year was a little different than most, there were delays in getting the applications in from the three private schools but more important was the fact that Princeton High School had a new “handler” of the program who was unresponsive to emails or calls.  The Committee had to speak to the Director of Counseling just days prior to the school’s spring break to ascertain whether the school would be submitting any scholarship applications. At that point we had received a mere 13 applications from the three other schools (Stuart 2, Hun 5 and PDS 6) down from the previous year’s total of 20 which included Princeton High School.  Kudos to Nipurna Shah the Director of Counseling, who came to our rescue, working throughout her break, and ultimately provided 5 applications on April 18 for the Committee’s review.  This year the Committee reviewed a total of 18 applications.

As a result of a By-laws revision this year, it was stated that at the March Board meeting the Scholarship Endowment Fund would determine 5% of its total value at March 1 to be used for scholarships this year.  That calculation amounted to $26,000.  Additional monies totaling $16,000 ($9,500 from scholarship donors, $2,050 from dues and $4,450 from other donations, these funds are held in the operating account) would bring the total amount to be awarded in 2022 to $42,000.  

Review of the 18 applications received resulted in interviewing 17 individuals.  The remaining young lady had not decided where she would be attending school past the national deadline for acceptance.  As is the process, the Committee matched the criteria for awarding each scholarship with a qualified applicant with the exception of the Luna Kayser Memorial Scholarship which is intended for a student with special needs.  There were no eligible candidates.  

The Ju family decided to increase the amount of their scholarship to a total of $2,500.  

Since we had not had an in-person ceremony since 2019, the Club had decided to hold the award ceremony at the Stockton Education Center on the grounds of Morven on May 16^th.  It was a rush to get the bio’s ready, script prepared, consent forms in, awards typed up and all of the hospitality aspects of the event in place.  A special thanks to Helen Ju, Sandy Stein and Kate Wood for capturing in the bio’s exactly what these young women are all about!  Also much thanks to Chairwoman Lorraine Haucke and her merry band of food aficionados, for the splendid food table presented for our award winners, Club members and guests.     

Nora Ananos, the Club’s official photographer, again offered to create a collage of pictures of the winners in a way to capture the excitement and importance of what we do.  The pictures can again be found on the Club’s web site.  We are ever so grateful to Nora for her talents and creativity.

In conclusion, the Women’s College Club of Princeton once again has met its mission of awarding deserving young women scholarships to assist them in meeting the high cost of higher education.  We can all be proud of what we do!!!

Respectfully submitted,

Elaine Rafferty

Scholarship Committee Chair

May 30, 2022