Isabel Lawrence and Emily Brand
News Reporters
On Sunday, Mar. 26, NCHS will host the annual scholarship drive where students go door to door to raise money for scholarships that will send their classmates to college. While all contributions, including those from businesses and families, are appreciated, student involvement can make or break the program. To get involved, students can sign up at a table in the cafeteria from Mar. 20-24. A ‘pep-rally’ will also be held on the 24th and is meant to encourage kids to come out and help raise more money each year.
Principal Dr. Bryan Luizzi, who was introduced to the program this year, fully supports its objectives. “I love the idea of Scholarship Sunday, how the students come out and actively participate in raising money to help their peers,” Dr. Luizzi said. “I love the idea of having a whole community-wide thing where businesses come in, but it’s also individual people and individual families that give any little bit that they can in order to help.”
Dr. Luizzi emphasizes how there’s no escaping the fact that college costs are rising. “The cost of college is so high and it’s easy to say, ‘Oh, we’re in New Canaan, nobody has any need,’ but people have need,” Dr. Luizzi said. “It’s expensive to live, let alone to try to put people through college, multiple kids.”
Because there is a lot of preparation that goes into organizing Scholarship Sunday, a committee of co-chairs has been organizing the scholarship with high hopes for this year. Co-chair Annette Terry explains why it is important to advertise the event and communicate with businesses. “This event provides students with financial aid who want to attend the college of their choice,” she said.
According to sophomore Kala Berg, students should participate in this worthwhile event. “I think that it’s a really good experience and it’s a good thing to do to help out the student body.”
Last year more than $36,000 were raised and over 76 students received scholarship money. In hopes of meeting, and exceeding, last year’s earnings, co-chair Lisa Isherwood highlighted the need for student involvement.“We’re hoping that we can exceed the amount of donations from last year. I wish we could award money to everyone who needs it,” co-chair Lisa Isherwood said. “One hundred percent participation is a dream, if all kids came out, rain or shine, and walked and encouraged each other as a group, then we could get more students to participate.”
