Marblehead Students Awarded Rotary Club Scholarships

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The Marblehead Rotary Club awarded six scholarships to deserving Marblehead students as they head off to college in the fall.

The Rotary Club increased its awards this year to help offset the rising cost of college tuition.

Recipients were selected based on academic achievement, demonstrated community service, financial need, and excellence in sports or the arts.

All recipients are either Marblehead residents or in the Marblehead school system.

Lily Finnegan is headed to San Diego State University in the fall to study hospitality and tourism management. An honors student, she was vice president of Best Buddies and a community volunteer for Special Olympics, as well as a dance instructor.

A Marblehead High cheerleader, she also played field hockey, was on the ski team and played tennis.

Finnegan earned this year's Don Humphreys Scholarship, which she applied for in honor of her grandfather, a Vietnam War veteran. The scholarship is named for Humphreys, a U.S. Marine in World War II who was a pilot in Guadalcanal, and a Marblehead Rotarian.

Daniel Howells earned this year's four-year Randolph E. and Barbara K. Goodwin Memorial Scholarship. An Eagle Scout, YMCA camp counselor and basketball player, he was his Marblehead High class's president for four years.

Howells plays several musical instruments, is active in theater and sang with the Marblehead High a cappella groups the Jewel Tones and the Grizzly Man Singers, while playing the lead role in high school musical productions.

Tess Kearney plans to study computer science at the University of Virginia. The two-year president of the Marblehead High Student Council, she was also the captain of the field hockey and tennis teams.

Kearney represented Marblehead at the Northeast Regional School Advisory Council and State School Advisory Council, earned the "Certificate of Academic Excellence" at Marblehead High and a Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Educational Athletics Achievement Award.

Sami Loughlin volunteered as a coach for Marblehead Recreation Department and spent the past summers overseas as a teacher for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. He was an active member of the Marblehead High Student Council, the Bridge Building Club and the Peer Mentor Program, while also playing on the school's baseball and basketball teams.

Loughlin plans to major in Business Administration at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts.

Jessica West is going to Georgia Tech to study biomolecular and chemical engineering. She was the vice president of the Distributive Education Clubs America for three years — a career and technical organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in the fields of marketing, finance and hospitality management.

West was the DECA district, state and international qualifier in innovation planning during her sophomore and junior years, while she also played field hockey and was on the Marblehead sailing team.

Chloe Pickering was a peer mentor in the Best Buddies Club and involved with SPUR community service initiatives. She was a frequent visitor of residents of Marblehead nursing homes and volunteered with the Student and Seniors Club, as well as the Special Olympics.

Pickering plans to pursue a degree in psychology at the University of Vermont.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)