Scholarship Club Salutes Lawnside’s 2021 Graduating Seniors

(June 7, 2021) Lawnside, New Jersey -- Graduating high school seniors from Lawnside, New Jersey, got some wise advice from one of their own at the 2021 Salute to Graduating Seniors held via Zoom June 5 courtesy of the NAACP Camden County East Youth Council’s Facebook page. This is the 76th anniversary of the Club and the 46th special event honoring graduating seniors.

Sydney M. Davis, the top scholarship recipient in 2018 and a senior at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, told them to remember three things: “Ask for help, go the extra mile and do what works for you.”

Ms. Davis, a graduate of Haddon Heights High School, detailed how attending the Educational Opportunity Fund program the summer before her first semester set her on the right path. Still, she detailed struggling to earn the high grades she was used to in high school, changing her major and finding her rhythm only to have COVID-19 upend everything by sophomore year.

She returned to Lawnside while attending classes online and began a full-time job at Bancroft, a nonprofit that serves people with autism, developmental and intellectual disabilities or who need neurological rehabilitation. Her aspiration changed to being the CEO of a hospital.

“Instead of being a doctor and working in a hospital, I now want to be the boss of all doctors,” she said.

“Be those role models that we need here in Lawnside. Be the person that is going to be asked to give the students at the elementary school a motivational speech, or that neurosurgeon that everyone heard such great things about. You can do it, and you will do it because myself, and this community is counting on you,” she said.

She admitted that online learning was difficult but she adapted. She bonded with her family on a different level and the quarantine period made her study more, read more and watch instructional YouTube videos.

Ms. Davis encouraged students to take advantage of all the resources their colleges offer, food, money, jobs, internships, field trips, tutoring, office hours for classes where they need help. They should seize every opportunity to grow, to learn while taking time to have fun.

“You will have your ups and downs in school, and that may have an effect on your course and route, but still keep going, do not give up. Your time will come, but patience is a virtue.”
Awards for recipients from Haddon Heights High School, Camden County Technical High School and Central High School, Philadelphia, were announced at the event. A complete list appears at http://lawnsidescholarshipclub.org.

Highest Average – Anne Nong, a Haddon Heights senior, who will attend Rowan University, is planning to study chemical engineering.
Second Highest Average – Arielle McLeod, a Haddon Heights senior, who will attend The College of New Jersey, plans to major in accounting in order to become a forensic accountant.
Third Highest Average – Angelina Torres, a Haddon Heights senior, plans to enter the military.
Fourth Highest Average – Tatiana Bundy, a Haddon Heights senior, will attend Fairleigh Dickinson University to major in business management with a concentration in international business and a minor in communications studies.
All are eligible for the Elizabeth Jones Academic Excellence Award along with Alaina Lucret, a Haddon Heights graduate who will enroll at Camden County College before transferring to a four-year university to earn a degree in accounting.