Williiam Tennent Holds 2011 Award Ceremony

More than 50 scholarships and awards were presented to a stage full of anxious William Tennent High School seniors on Wednesday at Klinger Middle School in Southampton.

The Senior Awards Program offers Tennent students the opportunity to apply for dozens of scholarships, which they must use toward some form of higher education, including  college, trade and technical schools.

Scholarship booklets are put together by school counselor, Linda Bielawski, a job she gladly took over in 2002. The booklets are then handed out to Tennent seniors, each scholarship having different requirements with diverse reasons for the scholarship's creation.

Some were started by the parents and families of previous students who have passed away and some are awarded and funded by community organizations.

The Kyle Quinn Memorial Scholarship was started by the Quinn family to honor their son, Kyle, 19, who was fatally beaten in 2007 outside of a Kutztown bar. There were three scholarship winners: Brieanna Anzideo, John Cicchitti and Phillip Strunk.

Part of this scholarship requirement was writing an original poem because Quinn loved writing poetry. Both Strunk and Cicchitti said they have never previously written poetry so this was something new for them. Strunk, who also won 13 awards, said this one was the most special. When speaking of Quinn, Strunk said, “He was such a phenomenal person – I am blessed to be a part of this whole process.”

Strunk stated that winning this award was similar to being told you are like Kyle Quinn, and that, said Strunk, “feels extraordinary.”

The Kyle Quinn Foundation was started four years go by his parents. Quinn's mother, Denise, said on the way home from the hospital she contacted a friend, who was a teacher and told her she had to set up a scholarship fund in her son's honor. Kyle's obituary included a request for donations to the fund. Coming from a family of teachers, Denise Quinn said education was important to Kyle, who also wanted to be a teacher.

Kyle was an employee of Five Ponds Golf Club and each year they host a fundraising event for the Kyle Quinn Scholarship. 

Strunk plans to use his scholarship money to attend Messiah College in Pennsylvania.  Cicchitti will use his to attend Holy Cross College in Massachusetts.

Bielawski said students are not told they are winners prior to the ceremony. All students invited to the ceremony know they won something but since most applied for multiple scholarships, they would each be surprised when their names were called.

Denise Quinn said a committee of five gets together to discuss the applicants of her son's scholarship and then decides who would be the best fit to represent her son.

Strunk said even if he didn't win the scholarship, he was still honored to be part of the memory of Quinn.

Other scholarships offered from local community organizations included the Ivyland Borough History Award, The Southampton/Warminster Lions Club, Warminster Rotary Club, William Tennent Football Scholarship and The Warminster Area Women's Club Scholarship, which was won by Samantha Barton.

A main focus of this scholarship was community service – something Barton knows everything about. Barton is part of the school's Key Club, has done a lot community service and participated in many 5K runs for charities. Barton said she was “shocked” when they called her name.

Bielowski said she enjoys putting together the awards program. Students that are not Tennent students can also apply for some of the scholarships from  their own schools.

 Some of the awards and scholarships are from teachers and the honorees are from various school departments such as Business, Language and Arts.

With so much emotion behind the scholarships, Bielowski said she feels like the presenters are part of her family too. “I enjoy working with them immensely,” she stated, adding that they are already planning for the 2012 Award Program.