March 30, 2022, Allentown, PA – Students in the Allentown School District will benefit from four new senior scholarships. The donors for these awards contributed a combined $67,000 to the ASD Foundation to benefit students graduating from Louis E. Dieruff and William Allen High Schools.
An Endowed Scholarship
The James P. Musselman Scholarship was created by Mrs. Bertie Musselman in memory of her husband, a beloved art teacher and long-time head of the Art Department at William Allen High School. Mr. Musselman was a mentor to dozens of artists in the Lehigh Valley area. This $10,000 endowed scholarship will be given to a William Allen High School senior who participated in, and made significant contributions to, the art program at WAHS and is pursuing a two- or four-year degree in art. The first recipient of this award will be in spring 2023.
EXPENDABLE SCHOLARSHIPS
This $2500 Margaret and Scott Koch Textbook Award was established by the Koch Family, longtime student-athletes, supporters, and fans of William Allen High School athletics. The award will provide a WAHS graduating athlete with assistance to purchase textbooks while attending a two- or four-year program. The recipient will be a graduating senior who has made a significant contribution to WAHS athletics, both on and off the field.
This year the family of Thomas Makhoul (1984-2018), a 2005 graduate of William Allen High School known around the community as Thunder Tom, expanded their existing Thomas Makhoul Memorial Scholarship given to a student graduating from WAHS to also give a scholarship to a student graduating from Dieruff High School. In tribute to Tom's life, this award provides assistance to a student who exemplifies what he stood for – goodness, light, and living life to the fullest. The scholarship memorializes his energy, wit, charm, the lasting impression he left on everyone, and his love for WAHS, his cousins , watching movies, and riding his bikes. One student from WAHS and DHS having earned a GPA of at least 3.0 and demonstrating a high level of service and volunteerism to the community will receive this $1000 scholarship.
The PREVAIL Scholarship was created by Karen and Mike Houser to assist a student who has prevailed over significant obstacles to achieve academic success, to prevail over financial obstacles while pursuing higher education in a four- or two-year program. The PREVAIL Scholarship will be given five times in alternate years to a William Allen or a Dieruff graduating senior beginning this year. Funded through a donation of $50,000, the student will receive $2500 a year for four years. This year a student from WAHS will receive the award, and it will alternate between WAHS and DHS in subsequent years. The recipient will be a student of good character who might otherwise not be able to attend college, with preference given to a student of color.
In all cases, the student will be selected by a process determined by the high school principal.
The Senior Scholarship program was founded in 2013 and has grown to offer annually more than 60 scholarships every year to students at William Allen High School, Louis E. Dieruff High School and Building 21. Both expendable and endowed scholarships are managed by a professional fund manager and supervised by the ASDF Investment Committee. In 2021, the ASD Foundation awarded nearly $55,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors. Graduating students at Building 21, Louise E. Dieruff, and William Allen High Schools should visit their guidance counselor to learn more about senior scholarship applications.
About the Allentown School District Foundation
Pursuing a vision of developing enriched education for Allentown School District students, the ASD Foundation has a mission to encourage, promote, support and fund positive educational experiences for students in the Allentown School District. Since its founding in 2009, the Foundation has raised over $7.5 million for supplemental programming in ASD schools. If you would like to learn more or to create a scholarship, please contact the Foundation at 484-765-4093 or [email protected]. The mailing address is P.O. Box 328, 31 South Penn Street, Allentown, PA 18105, and the website is https://asdf.allentownsd.org.
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