Congratulations 2024 Scholarship Winners!

Each year, the Credit Union gives out college scholarships to support the children of our members. This year, we received 153 applications from high school seniors for the scholarship. With the help of a volunteer scholarship review committee composed of our members, we chose ten students to volunteer to read the applications and choose the winners—a difficult process given the originality of the essays and the caliber of the student applicants–and chose ten students to each receive the $1,500 scholarship.

Craig Leonard, President and CEO of the Credit Union, said, “This year, similar to the past eight years that we’ve run the scholarship, it was difficult to select the winners. The essays were highly original, and the caliber of all the applicants was exceptional. We hope the scholarship prizes will have a positive impact on all of the winners. We are also proud that the Class of 2024 will be the first to see our new name on the checks: Harvard Federal Credit Union.”

This year, the task was complicated by the fact that our past collaborator, the Cooperative Credit Union Association, decided to sunset its annual scholarship awards process. The Credit Union elected to continue our scholarship awards independent of the CCUA, as we did not want to end this meaningful support to our members.

We are grateful to our committee members, who were members through many of our eligible groups, including the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, Harvard College alumni, Harvard Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Science, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Business School, Massachusetts General Hospital, the Harvard Medical School, the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Mass. Eye and Ear, Beth Israel Lahey Health, and more. One of our review committee volunteers expressed her gratitude thus: “Thank you again for keeping this scholarship alive for local students. I was a first-generation college student myself, so having access to scholarships like this was essential to my graduate outcomes.”

The winners were notified just before April vacation, and many happy tears were shed. The students are making their enrollment decisions now. So far, some have shared with us that they plan to study at Harvard College, University of Connecticut, University of Vermont, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science, Cornell, Brandeis, and Bryn Mawr College.

2024 SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM RECIPIENTS

Margot Cerbone of Albright, WV