At the May 20th Club meeting, we celebrated a very successful STRIVE year under the leadership of Club member Brent Voight.

Six STRIVE students received $4,750 in scholarships from the Sunrise Rotary Club earlier this week.

The six are Stillwater Area High School seniors.  They were among 11 students in this year’s STRIVE, a Rotary-originated program which stands for Students Taking a Renewed Interest in the Value of Education.  The 11 were mentored by 14 Sunrise members, spouses and friends at every-month meetings throughout the school year.

The top scholarship, $1,500 for Greatest Academic Improvement, was given Sam Sherman at the Sunrise Tuesday breakfast meeting.  Mentored by Mark Fisher, Sherman also won a $250 scholarship for perfect attendance at all mentor meetings.

Academic Improvement runner-up was Joe Knapp, who received a $750 scholarship.  He was mentored by father and son Art and Ted Nesse; Ted is a Sunrise member. 

Ben Sullivan received a $500 Mentor’s Choice and a $250 Perfect Attendance scholarship.  His mentors were Dave Langer and Dean Tibbets, both Sunrise members.  Three seniors each received $250 Mentor’s Choice and $250 Perfect Attendance scholarships -- Jenna VanHorn, whose mentors were Liz McGinley and Ann Langer; Ila Moua, whose mentor was Anne Green, and Lauren Pollasky, whose mentors were Kim Pepera and Tracey Weidner.

“These students were wonderful to work with,” reported Brent Voight, this year’s STRIVE chair.  “They were engaged throughout each monthly meeting.”  Eleven students and 18 mentors are already confirmed for the coming school year.

We are very proud of the students for their effort and participation.  And we thank all the mentors for their time and dedication to this program.