Shrewsbury Teacher, Student, Receive Awards and Scholarship

Submitted by Andrea Kotuk/Andrea & Associates for Jewish Guild Healthcare

Jennifer Tylock, who attends Shrewsbury High School, is among 16 legally blind, college-bound high school seniors to receive scholarships of $10,000 each from Jewish Guild Healthcare. The GuildScholar Program scholarships are awarded prior to the academic year that begins September 2013. 

The recipients are currently enrolled in high schools in the states of California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.  The GuildScholar Program was created, in part, through a generous grant from the Jeannette A. Klarenmeyer Trust.

As part of the application process, each student was asked to write an essay about a teacher whose encouragement made a great difference in their lives. Jennifer DiFrancesca of Shrewsbury High School will receive a $5,000 Teacher’s Award, in recognition of her support and dedication to bringing out the best in her student, Jennifer Tylock.

“We’re mindful of the often unexpectedly large sums of money needed to accomplish a successful transition from high school to a college or university and we think that this scholarship money can be put to excellent use during this phase,” said Alan R. Morse, JD, PhD, president and CEO of The Guild.

“At The Guild, we are committed to working toward a more inclusive society. The GuildScholar program will help assure that more blind students are able to enroll in colleges or universities that might otherwise be beyond their reach financially,” Dr. Morse continued. “We’re not concerned with their fields of study, but we are eager to help in the education of this country’s next generation of leaders, a group that must include persons with vision impairment,” he concluded.

The 16 winners were chosen after a rigorous application process that included criteria such as academic excellence, community involvement, legal blindness, financial need and US citizenship.