Recipients

"The activity I am pursuing is flight. I have been flying for two years now, trying to take one lesson every month. Both my parents have or currently serve in the military, and it has been my life's goal to follow in their footsteps and serve myself, as a Search and Rescue pilot for the Coast Guard. Flying has helped me grow as a person, simply because of the fact that whether you're planning a flight on the ground, or actually piloting the aircraft, a mature character is required at all times. I developed this attitude because of flying, but have translated it into my schoolwork and into other extracurricular activities. Flying has also given me the drive to excel academically. It makes me want to understand what I am being taught, versus just getting through it just to check off a box. I am excited about receiving this reward because it means I could get back into the air and enjoy doing what I do best, as well as putting me that much further to my goal of becoming a pilot."

"The 826 Enrichment Fund was both a financial help and motivator to continue my studies of snow and avalanche science. I'll be attending a backcountry avalanche skills course this winter at Mt. Washington's Tuckerman Ravine and the money I received from the fund will help pay for some of the costs. Along with the financial aid from the fund, I've been able to express my snow and avalanche interests to my peers and teachers at Morse. Now that I'm known as the student who studies snow and avalanche science, I'm much more motivated to put in the time towards becoming an expert in the field.

As someone who's taken multiple leadership positions and courses as a Morse student, I've been able to see the benefits of leadership in the serious topic of predicting avalanche danger and carrying out rescue efforts. Every class I've taken at Morse has also benefited my abilities in studying snow and avalanche science. I use my math and physics skills to determine the force at which a snowpack will collapse, my historical and rhetorical skills help me make both efficient and educated decisions on whether or not a slope is safe to travel on, and my natural science skills to understand how climate change and geology affect the amount of risk associated with an avalanche zone.

Morse has offered a great variety of classes to enable my interests in the Environmental Sciences, but I've felt most connected to my education while studying outside of the classroom. The 826 Enrichment Fund helped make my initial investments toward studying in the field possible."

"With the money given to me by the Morse Enrichment fund, I was able to purchase six grow lights that have allowed me to continue growing tropical fruit varieties. I have set up a shelf with four hanging grow lights that house the majority of my newly sprouted plants.

I greatly appreciate the grant I received from the Morse Enrichment fund, without it, I never would have never been able to continue growing my fruit seedlings, and it has given me an opportunity that gives me the option to learn more about plants, and how to grow different varieties. I have recently started growing cashews, cavendish bananas, Pitanguba star cherry, blackberry jam fruit, and miracle fruit. All thanks to the enrichment fund!

One of the grow lights I bought with the money from the grant is a portable grow light, which has been increasingly helpful over the dark winter months, and I have started using it for my many houseplants as well. I have included photos of the plant rack I have set up, as well as a photo of me with all my 84 potted plants. Again thank you for this opportunity!"

"With the help of the 826 Enrichment Scholarship Fund, I attended a month-long immersion camp for Japanese. This summer was my second year attending Concordia Language Villages in Minnesota. Mori No Ike is the name of the camp; “Forest on Pond” is the direct translation. I spent a month on a lake and was surrounded by forests. I studied Japanese with the help of fluent counselors and other students learning the language. I was put in level 4 out of 5, and practiced speaking, writing, and listening with 46 other month-long students. My camp name was Hinata which means “where the sun shines.” I earned high school credit.

Through this program we studied tech-free with Japanese dictionaries and textbooks. The only English permitted was speaking with friends and in writing my journal entries. Here I spent my weeks in classes, surrounded by strangers that quickly transitioned from peers to acquaintances to close friends. The friends I made are still close and I keep in touch with them over social media chats. Everyone was inclusive and accepting of our different backgrounds. I was one of only a handful of kids from New England. I was provided support and the gift of friendship as I met new individuals through our afternoon clubs that mixed two-weekers, one-weekers, and four-weekers together. Cultural activities were taught in the form of clubs, separate from our schooling, where we practiced calligraphy and knitting.

My final project was a collaboration with another camper. We wrote and composed an original song in Japanese called Kitsune Kiseki or ¨Fox Miracle¨ and presented it to the whole camp. This 826 Scholarship Fund allowed me to further my goals towards becoming fluent in Japanese. I plan to pursue Japanese in college during the Fall of 2020."