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PHILLIPS ALUMNI SCHOLAR
The 2010-2011 Phillips Scholar Alumni Award
The Phillips Scholar Alumni Award was established in 2003 to recognize one new scholarship recipient in particular who has exhibited strong involvement in his or her community as well as meeting our financial need and academic standards. The Trustees are very pleased to award a $10,000 scholarship for the 2010-2011 academic year to Zola Mendoza of Boston, MA, who is currently a sophomore at Northeastern University.
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Zola Mendoza with Managing Trustee Arthur Emery
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Zola is the first Alumni Scholar who applied to the scholarship for the first time as a college student. She attended Burke High School in Boston and graduated from Charlestown High School in 2009. Currently a sophomore at Northeastern University, she is majoring in International Affairs with an eye toward working for an NGO or some other opportunity in the realm of social justice, particularly on behalf of youth. She dates this interest to her first summer participating in the Upward Bound program in Boston, where she met people so dedicated to working for the advancement of others that she is committed to “doing for others what Upward Bound did for me.” A four-year member of Upward Bound, Zola took college courses throughout the years at UMass Boston and Regis College. This summer, she is working as a Resident Teaching Assistant in New York City with the Upward Bound program there, where she hopes to “reveal the strength and unlimited ability that is stored within the program’s participants.” She plans to continue her commitment to Upward Bound next summer as well.
Having lost her mother to cancer, Zola received assistance in her college search as a high school senior from Northeastern University’s Linking Education and Diversity (LEAD) program, which guides Boston public school students through the college admissions process. As a Northeastern student this past year, she was able to volunteer with the same program as a mentor. Zola also helped develop academic skills of middle school students through the AVID program (Advancement Via Individual Determination), tutoring at a Boston middle school weekly. This builds on teaching skills she developed in high school tutoring younger students at the Boston Public Library. Finally, she served as a member of the International Student and Scholar Institute at Northeastern on the Planning and Programming Committee for the NU Internationale Carnavale, a 2-month celebration with diverse cultural events offered each day.
Many thanks go to all of the alumni of The Stephen Phillips Memorial Scholarship Fund who donated so generously to the Alumni Scholarship. A friend of the scholarship matches all donations dollar for dollar, which makes each contribution a significant gift. All monies raised were used toward Zola's award.
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