Hoover Service Club awards $38,500 in scholarships to 2023 seniors
The Hoover Service Club today gave out $38,500 in scholarships and awards to 11 Hoover and Spain Park high school students and honored six middle school students for exemplary academic performance and citizenship.
The scholarships and awards were made possible by Hoover Service Club fundraisers and the generosity of donors, said Barbara Henry, chairwoman of the club’s scholarship committee. Due to a successful year, the amount of scholarships grew from $28,000 the previous year.
This year’s scholarship winners from Hoover High School and the institutions they plan to attend are:
- Amaria Guyton, Tuskegee University
- Courtney Lassiter, University of Alabama
- Nia Settles, Samford University
- Pyper Shepard, Alcorn State University
This year’s scholarship winners from Spain Park High School and the institutions they plan to attend are:
- Rana Abawi, University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Laura Broocks, Belmont University
- Lilli Kolb, Auburn University
- Zachary Lin, Rochester Institute of Technology
- Jackson Mitchell, Auburn University
Henry said the scholarship recipients were chosen based on their excellent academic records, school activities, community service and leadership.
The Service Club also gave out two awards to a senior from each high school who understands the importance of serving their community.
The Margaret Alford Community Service Award, named after a former Service Club member who had a passion for giving back to the community, when to Eshika Kudaravalli of Hoover High.
Kudaravalli, who is ranked No. 1 in her class and served on the International Baccalaureate Student Leadership Council, accumulated 1,351 community service hours. She was president of the Hope for Autumn Foundation Junior Board, which raises money to help families dealing with childhood cancer and to fund childhood cancer research and awareness.
She also has served as the founder and co-president of Outstanding Women Leaders in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), organizing a STEM night events for elementary and middle school students, and she spent four years volunteering to develop and teach science experiments at the McWane Science Center. Kudaravalli plans to become a doctor.
Evan Houser of Spain Park High School received the Ardith McMicken Community Service Award, also named after a former Service Club member with a strong record of service.
Houser, who served as president of his class, has been an ambassador for the high school, played on the varsity basketball team and maintained a strong GPA.
He led an organization called Clean Hoover that has a mission of preserving the environment and has led community cleanup efforts at the Moss Rock Preserve and along the Cahaba River. He also has volunteered at homeless shelters and with Habitat for Humanity and worked at the Greystone Golf and Country Club.
Houser plans to attend Vanderbilt University with the goal of becoming a doctor.
The Service Club also recognized one student from each of Hoover’s three middle schools for outstanding citizenship and one student from each middle school for outstanding academics.
The middle school citizenship awards went to Solomon Moore of Berry Middle, Taven Dutson of Bumpus Middle and Kristyna Helova of Simmons Middle, while the academic awards went to Ejatou Jallow of Berry, Serena Agrawal of Bumpus and Noah Maldonado of Simmons.
Service Club member Betty Moulton said the scholarship committee interviewed 25 middle school students before deciding on these six award winners.
“It was so very hard for us to choose just one student [for each award] because there were so many amazing kids,” Moulton said. “Each one of theme was just phenomenal.”
The committee was flabbergasted by the schedules these young people keep, juggling dance practices, Boy Scouts, church activities, athletics, volunteer work with community service organizations, family commitments and jobs, she said.
“I taught for 36 years, and meeting these young people really gives you hope for our society,” Moulton said.
The scholarships and awards were presented to the winners at a luncheon at the Hoover Country Club, with representatives from their families, their schools, the Hoover school system central office, Hoover Board of Education, city of Hoover and Hoover Service Club present.
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato and Hoover schools Superintendent Dee Fowler thanked the Service Club for raising money to support the young people and their efforts to obtain more education.
Brocato encouraged the students, once they graduate college, to come back to Hoover and invest in the community that invested in them.