Danbury Student Wins Scholarship For Local Government Project

Press release from the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities:

Dec. 16, 2020

Two Connecticut Public School students from Danbury and Southington were awarded $1000 #LoCoolGov scholarships from the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) at the 2020 CCM Virtual Convention. The scholarships are sponsored by Post University.

In an effort to engage Connecticut’s youth with local government, we ask students from Connecticut public middle schools (grades 6 – 8) and high schools (grades 9 – 12) to consider the topic of what is cool about local government?

Students are allowed to submit an essay, poem, photo, painting, video, multimedia project, or any other medium as long as it fits the main theme of local government. The entries are judged on closeness to theme, originality, and creativity, and both of this year’s winners had a unique vision of local government.

Katherine Pano Lalvay, an eighth grader from the Broadview Middle School in Danbury, won for her submission, “Danbury is My Home.”

This short informative slideshow answered questions about what excites her about her hometown, what services and places she likes to go. But also, in typical kid fashion, she knows what would make Danbury cooler too, with activities like zip lining and arts and crafts on her dream board, as well as making Danbury a cleaner, safer place for families.

Victoria Dabrowski, a ninth grader from Southington High School, won for her submission “The Spirit of Southington,” which is a dress that she had made.

It featured symbols of local government with emergency services represented by fire trucks and ambulances, police cars, garbage trucks, as well as desks and pencils for school, and pipes for water and waste. This original piece is the first piece of clothing submitted to #LoCoolGov, but it certainly set a high mark!

Socially distanced awards were held at the Post University offices in Downtown Waterbury at the refurbished Howland-Hughes building on Bank Street, with Shawn Whisenhant representing the University, and Joe DeLong, Executive Director and CEO of CCM.

“This is one of my favorite parts of the CCM Convention,” DeLong said, “Handing out these scholarships to these students and future leaders, and seeing all the unique ways they express what is cool about their local communities.”

In accepting the award, Dabrowski said that while designing the dress was a fun hobby, she’d like one day to be a politician, to which DeLong replied, perhaps a future CCM member.

This press release was produced by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. The views expressed here are the author's own.