Region 10 tech school recently received $10,000 to start a scholarship fund. From left are American Culinary Federation member Dan Caron, Chef Tim Dean, ACF members Dick Moseley, Don Rossignal and Charles Izzi, and Region 10 Superintendent Paul Perzanoski. Contributed

Region 10 gets new scholarship for culinary students

Representatives from the American Culinary Federation, Maine Chapter, presented a check for $10,000 on Aug. 26 to Region 10 Technical High School’s Superintendent/Director Paul Perzanoski and culinary arts program instructor, Chef Tim Dean, to create a scholarship fund.

The money will be used at the district’s discretion for scholarships to graduates who have successfully completed a semester of post-secondary study in culinary arts.

Dean said “receiving funds from this scholarship will encourage my students to further their education. In some cases, they will be the first in their families to go on to college.”

ACF Chapter members on hand to present the check were chefs Dan Caron, Don Rossignal, Charles Izzi and Dick Moseley. Moseley is a former culinary arts instructor at Region 10 and is known to and beloved by two decades’ of Region 10 culinary alumni.

Perzanoski said to the ACF presenters, “Your gift today is a fitting legacy. It will provide many of our graduates who might not otherwise be able to afford post-secondary study a way to realize their dreams.”

Five Portland students named National Merit semifinalists

Five high school seniors in the Portland Public Schools have been named semifinalists in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented students now have the opportunity to compete for about 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million that will be offered next spring. The five semifinalists are Portland High School seniors Liam Foley and Andrew Leonard; Deering High School students Aidan Blum Levine and Matthew Keast; and Casco Bay High School student Oscar McNally.

“This is the highest number of National Merit semifinalists from the Portland Public Schools in more than five years,” Superintendent Xavier Botana said. “The credit goes to not only these hardworking students but to their teachers and other supporters, including their parents. I wish them the best as they continue on in this competition.”

These students are among 68 Maine seniors named as semifinalists; there are 16,000 nationwide. Semifinalists were selected from a pool of more than 1.5 million high school juniors that entered the 2021 competition by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Of the 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level of the competition. Of those, about half will win a National Merit Scholarship and become National Merit Scholars.

Dollars for scholars

The Guy P. Gannett Journalism Scholarship Fund and the Agnes Freyer Gibbs Scholarship Fund of the Maine Community Foundation have awarded $235,000 in scholarships to graduates of Maine high schools. Local recipients are Samuel Pausman, Falmouth, and Molly Whelan, Freeport. The Gannett scholarship provides renewable support for students majoring in journalism or a field reasonably related, including print, broadcast or electronic media. The fund helps pay tuition to attend an undergraduate, graduate, trade or technical school. The Gibbs scholarship provides renewable support to graduating high school seniors planning to major in journalism or a reasonably related field. Applications for the 2021 Gannett and Gibbs scholarships will be available in January. Guidelines and a link to the online application can be found at mainecf.org.