From left to right, Dr. Eugene Karol, Jennifer Dolinar, Melanie Lippert, Sarah Mazur, Mignon Kim and Phil Campbell.

Prince Frederick, MD  – Members of the Rotary Club of Prince Frederick will readily admit they wish they could give more Calvert County students an opportunity to earn scholarships. Recently, the local service organization handed out four grants, each in the amount of $2,000, to graduating seniors from three of the county’s high schools.

“I’m impressed with the quality of the young people we interviewed,” said club member Warren Prince, who served on the committee charged with the task of paring the list down to the final four.

According to Dr. Eugene Karol, Calvert’s former school superintendent and past member of the Board of Education whose role with the local Rotary club is vocational services, over 70 seniors submitted applications for the grants. The applications were considered and 20 were selected for committee interviews.

The excelling students receiving scholarships were:

Jennifer Dolinar, a 2015 graduate of Northern High School, who has been accepted to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she will major in engineering;

Sarah Mazur, a recent graduate of Patuxent High School, who plans to attend the College of William and Mary, majoring in kinesiology;

Melanie Lippert, the recipient of the club’s Brian Albright Scholarship, who is bound for the University of Richmond to study biology and environmental science; and

Mignon Kim, the recipient of the club’s Eddie Allen Vocational Scholarship, who will attend the University of Maryland College Park to major in computer science on a pre-med track.

Lippert and Kim are both recent graduates of Calvert High School.

“It’s going to go towards my tuition and books,” said Kim of the scholarship money.

“Every penny counts,” Dolinar added.

“Our only regret is we only have four,” said Karol, who commended all four students for their “poise and demeanor.”

“Everyone expects you to excel,” said Calvert County Commissioner Tom Hejl, who spoke to the scholarship recipients during the presentation ceremony. “Good luck with college. We need new, good leaders.”

During a check presentation, the four recipients were given large orange ceremonial checks.

Rotary Club of Prince Frederick President Phil Campbell told the students and their family members attending the check presentation ceremony that the club raises the scholarship funds through sales from their food trailer, which features seafood and is parked prominently at many local events throughout the year.

Of the $8,000 in scholarship grant money, Campbell quipped, “there are a lot of clam strips in those orange checks.”

Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com