Rock Roth Freedom Scholarships Awarded
Post 8870 Commander Jim Blossey, is joined by Marilyn Roth in recognizing recognize Rock Roth Freedom Scholarship recipient Grace Wainaina.
At our June meeting, the recipients of the Rock Roth Freedom Scholarship were recognized by the Post. This year, marks the fourth year of the program of scholarships were named to honor the memory of Rock Roth, a veteran of the Vietnam War and a career naval aviator. Rock was a long-time member of the Post, who passed away suddenly last year. He played a leadership role in conducting the Post’s youth essay and teacher recognition programs and participated in a mentoring program for the students at Scriber-Lake High School. We were honored to have Marilyn Roth, Rock’s widow, attend the meeting to present the scholarships to the recipients.
The Rock Roth Freedom Scholarship was established to identify and reward deserving graduating seniors who have achieved an outstanding record of academic achievement, leadership, and community service and understand and value the freedom and rights guaranteed to us all by our Constitution. The scholarships, each in the amount of $1000, were awarded to two students residing within the Edmonds Public School District and two deserving seniors residing within the Mukilteo Public School District. In addition to their transcript and a resume, students were asked to write a 500-750 word essay in which they explained the meaning of freedom to them and how our Constitution establishes and maintains a culture of freedom in our country.
Representing the Edmonds School District were Jessica Nguyen who will graduate from Lynnwood High School and Daniil Oliferovskiy who attended Mount Lake Terrace High School. The two Mukilteo district seniors were Helen Anderson of Kamiak High School and Mariner High School graduate Grace Wainaina. Jessica graduated with a perfect GPA of 4.00 and will attend the University of Washington. Daniil graduated with a near-perfect GPA of 3.98 and will also attend the University of Washington. Helen Anderson plans to attend Western Washington University in the fall and Grace will attend Oakwood University in Alabama.