Albert Shanker College Scholarship Awards
Joining in the fun with the Bronx high school winners as they make an X sign signifying their borough are (top row, from left) Shanker Scholarship Fund Director Joseph Usatch, Bronx Borough Representative Mary Atkinson and UFT President Michael Mulgrew.
When high school senior Rida Batool heads to New York University this fall, an Albert Shanker College Scholarship will help defray the cost. The Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Education HS student will be studying medicine and said the $5,000 scholarship will help her pay for tuition and perhaps to live in a dorm instead of at home in Queens.
“My family’s pretty big,” she said, “and I need a space to myself for studying.”
Batool is one of the 189 public high school students and nine graduate students to win Shanker scholarships from the UFT this year. On June 4, the UFT hosted the 55th annual Albert Shanker Scholarship Awards Ceremony and Reception at union headquarters in Manhattan. Families and educators came together to honor a diverse and high-achieving group of students.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew celebrated the students’ commitment to education amid the tumult wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The students began high school online in September 2020, and their achievements are hard-won. “You had to figure this all out — there was no book on how to deal with a pandemic and do your schoolwork,” he said.
Mulgrew encouraged the students to keep striving for excellence. “We know you can be successful because you’re here now, overcoming all these challenges,” he said.
“What they went through was hard,” said Jocelyn Aponte, the school counselor at Manhattan’s College Academy, a small school with five scholarship winners this year. “But they supported each other and maintained a sense of unity through it all.”
Keynote speaker Phil Taitt, the Emmy-winning anchor and reporter from ABC 7 New York, described his own success as a “journey of perseverance” and encouraged the students to maintain high standards. “Let your brand be excellence,” he said.
Since 1969, the union-funded program has contributed nearly $52 million to more than 10,500 academically excellent and financially eligible public high school seniors and graduate students.
Joseph Usatch, the director of the UFT Albert Shanker Scholarship Fund, echoed the theme of determination. “Tonight is brought to us by our students’ dedication, determination and all-out grit,” he said.
Elias Loor, a senior at Leaders HS in Brooklyn, is heading in the fall to SUNY Binghamton, where he will major in English and adolescent education. He said his English teacher, Kenny Price, has inspired him to pursue a career as a New York City public school teacher.
For his part, Price said he takes pride in setting his students on a path that will eventually lead them to help others. “At some point,” he said, “it will come full circle.”
- Award-winning student: Paul Chudnovskiy
- His mentor: Francine Debra Simmons
- High school: New Dorp HS, Staten Island
- College in September: College of Staten Island, CUNY
- Planned major: Journalism
During the pandemic, Paul became fascinated with watching, listening to and reading the news. He began thinking about becoming a news reporter or anchor.
But first he had to improve his writing skills, which is where Francine Debra Simmons, his English teacher for his sophomore and junior years at New Dorp HS, came in.
“She had a routine with structured sentence work that helped me to write sentences with strong evidence and supporting inferences,” Paul said.
And like writers everywhere, Paul learned the importance of revision.
“Paul was really able to take the structure and run with it,” Simmons said. “He was able to absorb it, internalize it and make it his own. You would hardly have been able to tell it was a 10th- or 11th-grader’s writing.”
Paul, in turn, has become more confident in his abilities.
“I feel Ms. Simmons has helped me academically to be able to go out into the real world with good ideas for how to write well-developed paragraphs and essays,” he said.
Simmons has accomplished her mission as Paul heads off to the College of Staten Island in September.
“He writes like a college student already,” she said. “His work is advanced and sophisticated.”
— Cara Metz
- Award-winning student: Morgan Berry
- Her mentor: Jenny Virgopia
- High school: The Clinton School, Manhattan
- College in September: Spelman College
- Planned major: Health sciences/pre-med
Clinton HS senior Morgan’s goal is to become a doctor and serve underserved communities. “Being a minority, you see the discrimination in health care,” she said. “That not only affects me and the people I care about, it’s obviously something that needs to be addressed.”
Morgan attributes her drive to make her mark to Jenny Virgopia, the library/media specialist at her elementary school, PS 212 in Manhattan. “She always pushed me to do better and strive for more, and I carried that with me,” she said.
Since middle school, Morgan has volunteered each week for Virgopia’s after-school library program. She assists with shelving and cataloging books, reading to the younger students and helping with homework. “The students love her,” Virgopia said. “They ask,‘Is Morgan coming today?’”
Morgan came full circle when she decided to volunteer at her old school. “I was always excited to be in that class and that school, so I felt inspired to give back to that community,” she said. “It’s crazy to see how I was in their position 10 years ago and how much I’ve progressed. It’s really cool to have an impact on how they are now.”
Virgopia describes how Morgan blossomed from a bright young girl who was eager to learn, confident, kind and hardworking to a determined young woman who “perseveres to get funding for college so she can pursue her dreams.”
“Morgan is unbelievable,” she said, “and it’s fascinating for me to watch her journey.”
— Cara Metz