I played my second season of varsity soccer this fall semester at Bates College. It was a great season for our team and we were able to build strong connections with each other leading to a more robust program. One of the highlights of the season was our 2-0 victory over Tufts University. This was my first NESCAC start in goal, and following this win, my coach chose to start me in the net for the rest of the season. Our team is also planning to take a soccer-oriented trip to Iceland this April which will include both exploring the country and playing soccer. This fall and last spring I volunteered several days a week as a fourth-grade teaching assistant at a local elementary school. This opportunity has sparked a new passion for working with children leading to my future work at the Early Childhood Education Center at MV Community Services. I plan to work there this summer with children ages three to five to develop my skills as a mentor and teacher, and to gain insight into the other services provided through Community Services that will help guide my career path. I recently declared a major in Psychology with a minor in Hispanic Studies and will be applying to a semester abroad program in Granada, Spain during the spring of Junior Year. I am grateful for the opportunity MVYouth has given me in pursuing my athletic and academic interests at Bates.
Maria Clara Lacerda - Northeastern University
This past semester has been incredibly fulfilling. While the courses and workload are very rigorous, even more than last year, I am reminded every day that I made the right decision to attend Northeastern University. I am on track to graduate with a combined major in Psychology and Business Administration, with a Marketing Analytics concentration. As time progresses I realize even more strongly how these two subjects go hand in hand. Similar theories are brought up in all of my classes, and I see the association between the two in my day-to-day life. This semester I have been more involved in the community by joining the Data Club and Northeastern Women in Business club. My short time in the Data Club has already strengthened my desire to pursue a career in marketing analytics, something I hope to be working with very soon. I was also able to give back to the Boston community through community service opportunities offered through Kappa Kappa Gamma, the sorority I joined in the fall of last year.
This semester I will finally be able to benefit from the reason why I chose to attend Northeastern in the first place, which is their co-op program. This program provides students with the opportunity to work for companies around the globe while gaining experience in their field of choice. By the end of this semester, I will have a job set in place for next fall where I will be able to explore and solidify a career in the future. I’m not sure what co-op I will get but I am super excited for the process to begin. The generosity MVYouth has shown me and my fellow scholarship recipients continues to be a source of inspiration while pursuing this amazing opportunity. I am very grateful for my journey so far and I am very excited about what is to come!
Larissa De Oliveria - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
The last two semesters at UMass have been amazing! Last semester I got to experience my first spring in Amherst which was such a great opportunity to explore the area more. I enjoyed finding quite places outside to study and do work. Moving out of my freshman dorm was bittersweet, it holds so many memories of my first year here and the start of my college journey. Although leaving that dorm room was kind of sad, I was also excited to start my second year and make even more memories. I was also happy to wrap up my courses and return to our island community. Returning in the fall was much different than the previous year. It felt great to know where everything is and to be arriving to familiar faces.
This fall semester has been a great start to my second year at UMass. This semester I focused on finishing up a couple of gen ed requirements, for example I took a biology course titled: Evolution Explained which was taught by a lively professor who related the material to pop culture references and made sure we were always engaged in class. It was a different approach to biology than I have experienced in the past, but I found myself grasping concepts faster than I thought I would. For my fall semester I set a goal to challenge myself and I did just that. I enrolled in a Linguistics course which is the first step in obtaining a certificate to teach English to speakers of other languages. I am very excited to work towards this certificate and be able to have a full circle moment starting as someone who had to be taught English and now hopefully becoming someone who can teach English. Once again, I am very grateful for MVYouth, and all the people involved in providing me with this amazing opportunity. Thank you for all the support!
Brooke Crocker - Tufts University
This past fall semester, I declared my major as International Relations with a concentration in International Economics and a minor in Entrepreneurship! I was able to delve deeper into my studies in these fields by taking classes such as “Human Rights in Cultural Context,” and “Intermediate Microeconomics.” Additionally, I was able to take a Spanish class centered around the Spanish Civil War and the Francisco Franco dictatorship. This was my favorite class this semester, as I was able to combine my love of studying Spanish with my love of History. In this class I was able to create my own presentation, focusing on the similarities and differences between the dictatorship in Spain and the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. I am looking forward to presenting my findings and research to professors and fellow students in a Spanish Symposium in the Spring.
This semester I really wanted to take advantage of Tufts’ location in the greater Boston area and explore the city more. I spent more time this semester exploring areas such as Beacon Hill, the North End, and Seaport with friends. My love for Boston and the surrounding area grew, as I learned more about the city and all it has to offer. Additionally, I am continuing to participate in extracurriculars such as Water Polo and “Women in International Relations.” I am hoping to explore more clubs and activities, such as “Tufts Mountain Club” in the upcoming semester. I also made several plans for the upcoming year, including signing a lease for an apartment with my friends and making plans to study abroad in Spain in Spring 2024. Without MVYouth all of these experiences and plans would not be possible, and I am so grateful. Thank you so much!
Chloe Combra - Trinity College Dublin
This past semester, studying at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, has been an absolute dream come true for me. Founded in the late 1500s, the school boasts a stunning campus and a long history of extremely acclaimed alumni. This, as well as the top tier professors I’m lucky to have teaching my lectures, have been huge motivators to me in my studies. Going to school in Dublin has allowed me a wide range of opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. For example, my political science major curriculum is more aimed towards studying European Union/World Politics and has allowed me to discover and study topics I never did back home. In my geography major, I have had the opportunity to study environmental political crises affecting all over the Earth and not just those primarily affecting the US as before. Additionally, living in Dublin means not only that I am immersed in one new culture, but many. This is through the diversity of Dublin in itself and the accessibility I now have to the greater European continent. In the past 4 months since moving to Dublin I have visited a plethora of countries including Belgium, Switzerland, France, Spain, and Scotland. One of the things I am most grateful for this past semester is the ability I now have to visit my grandparents, aunts, cousins, and family who live in Ireland more. This means I’ve also had the opportunity to learn more of my Irish heritage and history. Overall, the first semester of my studies in Ireland has been fantastic and I cannot wait for the next few!
Maddie Chronister - University of Massachusetts, Stockbridge
This summer I had a working class tour of the Island in a Toyota Tacoma with broken AC. I spent a late night on the beach learning the Portuguese words for the moon and stars. In the morning, someone makes an incredibly obvious observation: “The sun is rising. I can see it,”. Words aren’t poetic just because they sound like surface level ancient proverbs. They are poetic because of their meaning- the retrospect of laughter every time I see the sun rise. I watched the blood moon at 5:30 am on November 8th; soon after it came the sun. And so the quote crossed my mind. I can see it. Stories aren’t meaningful just because they tell you something. They make you feel something. In holometabolous larvae, the imaginal disc is a structure that will become part of the adult- a limb, an organ, so forth. On the third floor of Fernald hall (est. 1911) there is a set of rules written in chalk. You would have to see it yourself to understand.
I learned this fall some things that can’t be put into words and plenty of things that can. Of the null hypothesis and of the corpus cardiacum and Keynesian macroeconomics and Haudenosaunee Nationals Lacrosse and this thing called Elysium. This November I also wrote over twenty-thousand words of a novel in an attempt to do what writers do - make people understand things that are impossible to put into words. All the same, I don’t have enough words to explain just how MVYouth represents the things that are important to me, the things I try to write about. The work, the academics, the friends. Thank you again for the connections and opportunities for which I owe these words. I can’t wait to see what next semester will hold.
Michaela Benefit - University of Connecticut
My first fall semester at University of Connecticut was one to remember, it started off with getting into a hands on program through the school that let me fulfill my education while also working in person with the animals on campus. This past semester I enjoyed all the classes I enrolled in, especially my Anatomy and Physiology of Domestic Animals class. On campus I have joined my Outing Club, which has led me to new opportunities and memories. One trip that really stood out to me was, when I recently hiked up Mount Washington. In the future I will be joining the Outing Club on our annual ski trip to Smugglers Notch up in Vermont. I have also been placed in a learning community in my dorm building which has surrounded me with like minded individuals who enjoy learning about similar subjects as me. My learning community is Eco House, they strive to keep campus green and get involved with community service. Since being involved with Eco House I have made friendships, connected with the campus community, and learned new information through our weekly meetups during class. Some key points to my first semester at college were making life-long friendships, winning my little I competition with my horse, The UC Diplomat, going on spontaneous trips with my new friends, and doing amazing in all my classes. Overall, I have acquired new skills and lessons through not only my classes at University of Connecticut but also through my new relationships with friends and professors, which in the long run will help me achieve my career goals. Lastly, I would like to give a thanks to all the donors that made these experiences happen, I deeply appreciate all that you do for everyone involved with the MVYouth scholarship, you all truly help make life-changing experiences, thank you for all that you do.
Galya Walt - Tufts University
Since the last update, I am excited to have started a Master of Public Health program at Harvard School of Public Health following a restful summer off in between my previous job and school. I just finished up my first semester and loved it so far! My coursework this semester included studying the foundations of epidemiology, public policy and theory of disease distribution. I love spending my days reading, exploring different libraries and getting to know my classmates. In addition to classes, I have been working 10 hours/week at Massachusetts General Hospital supporting a research project providing overnight infant care for parents living in residential treatment programs for substance use disorders. I have already learned so much from both the principal investigator and research participants and am so grateful to have a place to apply my interest in substance use disorders outside of the classroom. After I graduate, I hope to use my degree to work in research around harm reduction for substance use disorders. Outside of school and work, I have been enjoying the community in Cambridge I have been lucky enough to live in for the past few years and going to the mountains as much as I can! I am so grateful for MVYouth for giving me the gift of debt-free undergraduate education which allowed me to pursue a graduate degree. Wishing everyone a healthy and meaningful year!
Kaela Vecchia-Zeitz - New York University
Over the past year, I moved to Chicago to earn my Master’s in Social Work from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Part of the program is completing a field placement at an agency of my choosing to receive hands-on experience working in the social work field. I chose to intern at the non-profit, Resilience, dedicated to the healing and empowerment of sexual assault survivors through counseling, individual and group trauma therapy, and medical and legal advocacy in the greater Chicago metropolitan area. Resilience also provides public education and institutional advocacy in order to improve the treatment of sexual assault survivors and to effect positive change in policies and public attitudes toward sexual assault. I intern with Resilience’s Education & Training Team where we provide prevention education to students starting in Kindergarten but ranging up to 12th grade and beyond. The lessons vary depending on age, but we generally talk to students about consent, healthy boundaries, safe & unsafe touches, the importance of reporting assault/harassment to safe adults, and how prevalent and preventable sexual assault is in our society. I have found the work to be incredibly fulfilling as I have tended to work one-on-one with survivors in therapeutic settings, so to be able to teach prevention education to students is deeply personal, meaningful, and important to me. When I am not in school or at my field placement, I enjoy bike rides along the lakefront, going to live music shows, meeting new people, and exploring the incredible city of Chicago!
Meghan Sawyer - Colgate University
What an eventful year! Last May I graduated from Colgate University with a degree in Mathematical Economics. I still cannot believe how quickly the years flew by. I remember my freshman year when I first arrived at Colgate, it was an adjustment. Being away from home for the first time, I was scared, nervous, but excited for what was ahead. Four years later at graduation, I couldn’t help but feel as I did when I arrived. I was scared of leaving behind the wonderful people and places I’ve come to know so well, nervous about what comes next, but excited about all the possibilities the future holds. I came home, unpacked my bags and thought to myself, “Ok, now what?”. I had an incredible summer on the island while I was on the job hunt. Luckily, after a few months I landed a job at an amazing company, and in August I moved to Boston and started my new position. I currently work at Edelstein & Company, a public accounting firm located in Boston’s financial district. I am an associate in the Healthcare department, so I do work for different medical practices and physicians. Since starting I love my job and I love the amazing people I’ve met at Edelstein. Living in Boston has been a dream. I've been exploring all over the city, and I can't wait to continue getting to know Boston. I’ve done a lot of growing since that day when I first arrived at Colgate, and I want to thank MVYouth for supporting me all throughout undergrad.
Charles Parkhurst - UCLA
A lot has taken place over the course of the last year! As you can imagine if you’ve seen some of the recent news, the cryptocurrency space has undoubtedly been going through some turbulent times. Unfortunately, the hedge fund I was working at was not unscathed and ended up letting go of their employees over the summer (myself included). I decided to take some time to work for myself and build my background rather than immediately apply for new positions. I took a number of online courses over the summer in areas ranging from decentralized finance to programming and financial modeling. As I’ve built experience as a trader since the summer of 2016, I’ve been trading for myself these last few months as my primary income. The skills I built at the hedge fund working on algorithmic trading have given me a great set of tools that I’ve been utilizing to be successful with this. I’ve also begun taking consulting calls with the firm AlphaSights, providing insight for firms looking to get into the blockchain space. Having been through the last bear market that started roughly five years ago, this is all market behavior I’m used to and I’m still highly confident in the potential for blockchain technology in the years to come. I fully plan on continuing to build a career in the space and am working on an exciting entrepreneurial venture with a couple of my colleagues. However, it’s great to know that I always have the option of continuing my work in eCommerce as well. I’m still figuring out my path, but with hard work I’m sure that all will work out!
Annie Ollen - Barnard College
This year has been full of growth and transition as I continue my career in education on the Vineyard. I am still working as an Educational Support Professional (ESP) at the West Tisbury School where I assist middle school students in their math classes. I began the process of taking my license exams to become a math teacher and hope to start graduate school in the fall. In addition to supporting students in the classroom, I am one of the adult supervisors of the Student Council which helps to organize community service projects and school-wide events. I also coached the volleyball team last spring, and am assisting in this year’s school theater production of Matilda.
Working in education in the same school and community that raised me has been more rewarding than I could’ve ever imagined. I feel so fortunate to have received such an incredible education as a child, which was integral for my success in college and beyond. I hope to be able to create the same positive impact for the next generation of Island kids. Building a career and a life on the Vineyard as a young adult has not been easy with the increased cost of living and housing shortage. However, not having the burden of undergraduate student debt has allowed me to start this next chapter exactly where I want to be - back at home.
MVYouth’s continued investment in the young people on this Island allows kids like me to keep dreaming to achieve whatever they aspire to. This spring will mark eight years since my family and I learned that I would be one of the first scholarship recipients, and with each passing year my appreciation continues to grow for the impact this support has had on the trajectory of my life.
Madeleine Moore - University of Chicago
In 2022, I continued to work to fundraise for Senator Warnock and Senator Cortez Masto at MissionWired. I was promoted to a Digital Strategist and went on to help raise over $250 million for these senators! In this role, I advise clients on digital strategy, as well as write, draft, and produce fundraising copy. Both senators won their hard-fought battleground races, and expanded on the democratic senate majority. I am incredibly proud and excited to continue this work into the 2024 cycle. Looking forward, I am contemplating applying to law school. I’d like to continue working in politics either at a national level or back in Massachusetts. Additionally, I was able to travel to Iceland and then the United Kingdom to see my sister graduate from college! After many years of limited travel, it was great to be exploring new places again. I travelled to see my cousin get married and my sister start college at Yale (as an MVYouth scholarship semifinalist!). I am loving city life in D.C.; museums, restaurants, friends, but always miss and come back to the Vineyard as often as possible.
Evelyn Medeiros - Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science
This past year I worked as a registered nurse on a medical surgical floor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. I met and learned from incredible professionals working in many disciplines that welcomed and supported me as I began my nursing career. Working on a med-surg floor at a big Boston hospital, I was able to care for patients from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of illnesses, teaching me a lot about medicine, as well as different communities and cultures. I learned not only how to care for my patients physically, but also spiritually and emotionally. I found that doing what’s best for my patients doesn’t always mean prolonging life, but often preserving their comfort and dignity. While the year did not go without its challenges, I believe these lessons and others have truly helped me grow substantially as a nurse and as an individual.
Though working at BIDMC was such a great experience, I decided to move to New Jersey as my partner continues his research at Princeton University. During the process of transferring my RN license to New Jersey, I took advantage of the extra free time by fulfilling my long time dream of adopting a dog. Her name is Caramel, and she was rescued from a wildfire in South Korea. It has been so rewarding training and caring for her as she acclimates to life outside of the shelter and becomes part of our family. I now look forward to getting back to work and continuing my nursing career here in New Jersey, bringing all of my experiences and knowledge to my next job. As always, I would like to thank MVYouth and its donors for their incredible generosity that has made all of this possible.
Casey McAndrews - Hamilton College
This past June, I started my first year of medical school at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, Maine. I have loved being able to study just seconds from the beach (and on a good day even on the beach!) and getting to explore the city of Portland, Maine. From being in the gross anatomy lab, to participating in simulated patient encounters, to spending time visiting local nursing homes to practice taking patient histories, my days are full of exciting learning experiences.
What I love about osteopathic medicine is the integration of what we think of as “traditional” medicine with the osteopathic philosophy of the mind, body, and soul being a unit. When a patient comes in with a chief complaint, we are taught to think about how to treat the root of the problem rather than just the symptoms. We also learn Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM), which is a hands-on approach to diagnosing and treating somatic dysfunctions to improve a patient’s structural and physiological health.
In my free time, I have been volunteering at the local elementary schools as a mentor to a third-grade student and as a teacher for the Mini Medical School Program where I lead monthly lessons on different body systems in a third-grade classroom. Some of my time has also been spent working on research at the Maine Health Institute of Research, where we are assessing the possible adverse effects of Canagliflozin, a drug for type II diabetes, on bone health in a mouse-model. To say the least, school has kept me busy! Thank you again to MVYouth for all of your support over the past several years. You truly have helped to make my dreams possible.
LJ Jacobs - Hamilton College
My second year living in Seattle has been one of exciting changes. In June, I graduated with my Master of Social Work in Administration and Policy Practice from the University of Washington, which felt like a big end to my 19 consecutive years of education (you can imagine I was feeling ready to be done!). Also in June, I submitted my Masters thesis/passion project on peer respite centers, which are peer-run alternatives to psychiatric hospitalization, and sent the research out for future publication in a research journal. My parents and sister travelled to Seattle to celebrate and visit the stunning Orcas Island, which was a blast. I took the rest of the summer to decompress and take a few adventurous trips to a rural Washington farm, Portland and Chicago. In the fall, I started my first post-grad job as a mental health counselor and care coordinator at a Seattle-area middle school and high school with a majority queer and trans student body. Despite my research and policy focus in school, I am finding that directly supporting youth mental health in a school setting feels fulfilling and natural for me right now. There are certainly very difficult days doing this work within broken systems and a lack of resources, and I'm grateful to have a strong network of support from friends and family to get me through. I am also proud to have come out as non-binary this year. Having the privilege to express my authentic self in a safe and affirming community both at work and in my personal life has meant the world, and I'm dreaming of a future where this is the norm for all. Thank you as always to MVYouth and to my Vineyard roots for providing me with the support and resources to get me here!
Danielle Hopkins - Barnard College
2022 was quite an exciting and challenging year for me. I continued working as a client advocate at the Harris County Public Defender’s office here in Houston, Texas. My work as a client advocate really varies from day to day. One day I will spend three plus hours in the jail visiting clients and getting documents signed, the next I will be with a coworker driving around town as we assist a client transitioning into a substance use treatment program, and other days I never leave my desk as I check emails and make phone calls. What has been challenging about this role is that most of the time clients do not get favorable outcomes in their cases and as a result so many aspects of their lives are impacted. There are some days filled with amazing news of charges being dropped and clients reunited with families, but most end with sentences or heavy parole requirements that make it impossible to move on from their case. Despite these emotional highs and lows I really am so grateful to be in this position and working in this role as it has prepared me well for my future career as a public defender. I also got the opportunity to be a guest on a podcast Public Defenseless where I spoke about my job as an advocate and the Harris County Public Defender's Office. It was my first time on a podcast and it was a really cool experience.
Besides work, a lot of this year I spent on my law school applications. I re-took the LSAT two times and finally finished applying to all my schools by December 1st. I have begun hearing back from a few and so far have been very excited by the news. Just this week I found out I was accepted into NYU School of Law! I am so grateful for the support I received from my mentors, professors, friends and family during this process. And I also am grateful for the support and opportunities MVYouth provided me throughout my four years of undergrad and beyond.
Samantha Hargy - George Washington University
Another year has gone by too quickly! I’m still in Washington, D.C. pursuing my Master’s degree in International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). I graduate in May and plan on sticking around D.C. to look for a job. I’ve really enjoyed my education at SAIS and the amazing opportunities that Washington, D.C. continues to present. This past semester I interned with Women for Women International in their Development Department. Women for Women works to economically empower women in countries that have experienced conflict, and as part of their four person Development team I was responsible for curating profiles of potential donors and working to get over $15 million in donations distributed to our Programs teams that operate throughout Africa and the Middle East. I learned a lot about how to fundraise for non-profit organizations, and I know that these skills will be beneficial for my job search! My last semester is all lined up, and my classes are focused on migration, energy, and the Latin American region. My interest in climate and migration stems from my island home and the threat that a rising sea level poses on my family and countless others on this island. I hope that researching more about what motivates people to migrate as a result of climate change can benefit the future of this community in the future.
As always, I love seeing how MVYouth grows each year, serving more Island kids with dreams of venturing out into the world. I credit MVYouth for the many amazing years that I’ve spent in Washington, D.C., with hopefully more to come! Wishing everyone a great holiday season with friends and family, and many more adventures in 2023!
Lena Hanschka - Colby College
I began 2022 living and working in the Chamonix Valley in the French Alps. Working as a private chef, I was able to hone my cooking skills, exploring recipes and meals influenced by the French Savoyard style of cooking and practicing my French language skills between the stalls of the farmer’s markets. My free time was spent outside, either backcountry skiing through the magnificent glaciered peaks or trail running through small villages nestled into the mountains. My three months spent in Chamonix taught me a lot and challenged me to push myself out of my comfort zone, whether in the kitchen or in the mountains.
After returning to the U.S., I moved to Nyack, New York, a small town just north of New York City. I spent the summer and fall working first in a restaurant and later getting a job with the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) in Harriman State Park. Working with the AMC was a great introductory job into the non-profit conservation field and gave me greater insight into how organizations, like the AMC, are working to make the outdoors more accessible to all kinds of people, regardless of their prior experience in wilderness areas. Because of the park’s proximity to the city, it attracts a lot of people coming up for a day trip. This provided an interesting opportunity for me to adjust my own perspective in order to create a more inclusive and accessible space for all people.
In December, I finished up my position with the AMC, packed up my things, and drove north to Burlington, Vermont. In January, I will be starting a social work position with Champlain Community Services working one-on-one with individuals living with mental disabilities. I am really looking forward to this new position and the challenges and pleasures it will bring.
Kathleen Dos Santos - Toni&Guy Hairdressing Academy
The past few months at Toni&Guy have been life changing. I have been able to grow not only as a person but also as a hairstylist. I’ve been loving being able to express my creativity here, improve my skills that I already have, and being able to learn new techniques. I can service clients at the school, give out hair cuts, and style outs. Soon I’ll be allowed to do color on clients. When I don’t have a client, I’m giving my mannequins a new hairstyle everyday. As a full-time student, some days have been harder than others, but I’ve had the best peers and teachers supporting me and helping me get through it. I love the staff from Toni & Guy, as they have been so helpful in helping me learn new things and improve in the skills that I already had. They’ve shown me what I’ve been doing wrong, taught me how to fix those mistakes and how to avoid making them in the future. They’ve also taught me to see mistakes in other people’s hair and how to fix them.
Since there isn’t a campus at the school, I’ve been living in an apartment. Trying to adapt to city living has been an interesting experience, but I’ve been enjoying learning how to navigate the world on my own. Though I will say that living on my own has been difficult. Not having roommates or my parents around has been very different for me. I’m used to always having people around. Though I have been loving this time to myself, it’s helped me focus and make sure I stay on top of my work. When I can, I go home to Martha’s Vineyard and visit my family and some weekends I work at Maggie’s Salon. I’m very grateful for Maggie and the girls for teaching me a few tips and tricks before I went to school. Most of all I am very thankful for MVYouth for supporting me. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I am now one step closer to achieving my dream.