Credit: Marissa Mendoza

The Wayland Scholarship Foundation was created to help students reach their future goals when choosing which college to attend. “I have a lot of ambitious goals for the program,” Committee Chair Jeanne Brown said. “But primarily, the goal is to ensure that students who have academic promise and financial need get a little help getting to their first year of college.”

The stress of applying to colleges can be demanding for students and along with that, so can the price of colleges. Throughout the years, the cost of college tuition and fees have increased for multiple reasons. The Wayland Scholarship Foundation (WSF) was founded to support all WHS students in accessing college education by alleviating some financial challenges.

WSF was founded in 1978 and is currently made up of 11 volunteers. The group has a total of 51 named awards that each hold a place in the Wayland community.

“We’ve been able to close the gap for some students [when] their financial award letter was not really what they wanted,” Committee Chair Jeanne Brown said. “We were able to close the gap enough so that they could go to the school that they wanted to go to. If we can help somebody go to that school that they’ve been dreaming of, [if the foundation can] make it a little bit easier for them, that’s helpful.”

The committee meets monthly to discuss donations and awards. At the end of every school year they award scholarships to qualified graduating seniors to assist them in their first year of college. In order to be a recipient of a scholarship given by the foundation, a student needs to be going to an accredited full-time program.

Wayland can be an academically competitive school, especially when students are going through the college process. Brown recognizes this and expressed the importance of acknowledging both other students’ accomplishments and your own, but not comparing the two.

“My motto since 2020, has been ‘don’t let perfect be the enemy of good’,” Brown said. “I know that’s hard for some Wayland students to understand because there’s lots of perfectionists there, but it’s a very competitive school which makes it really difficult. I think competition is good, as long as you celebrate each other’s wins too. I think this is a huge win for everybody who is able to receive the scholarship as well because it shows their hard work.”

Brown and Guidance Department Head Benjamin Buffa strive to help more students meet their future goals, but if students don’t apply until the last minute, it can be difficult. Leaders of the foundation work with the guidance department and the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) liaisons to spread the word about the scholarship opportunities.

“I would love to make more students and families aware of the scholarship, especially those in financial need,” Buffa said. “I would also love for students to fill out the application sooner [because] there’s always a mad dash at the end.”

At WHS, the counseling department does their best to inform students about the different options that are available. In the counseling office there are brochures from many colleges as well as military branches students can look at. According to Buffa, the foundation is important because some selective colleges do not offer merit scholarships.

“We always reminds students to think about cost and affordability early on,” Buffa said. “Many selective colleges have $85,000 to $90,000 price tags nowadays, and that’s just plain ridiculous if you ask me. In light of this, it’s important to look at schools that are known for offering merit scholarships and being more generous with aid that meet demonstrated financial need and looking for other ‘financial safety’ options.”

When applying for a scholarship from WSF, there are three steps a student must take. The first is to fill out an online form with short essay questions that let the foundation know who you are as a person. The next step is to contact the counseling department administrative assistant Monica Mulkern and send her a copy of your transcript, as well as a letter of recommendation from your guidance counselor by March 31. Mulkern will then send your materials to the foundation where they will gather all the information and begin to schedule time for committee members to converse with the students who have applied.

“These awards were all established by family members or organizations, either in memory of a loved one or to honor someone,” Brown said. “So it’s very personal to people [and there are] a lot of personal feelings. We as a committee keep that in mind, and we do our very best to honor either the person for whom the award is named, or the mission of the organization.”

World Language Department Head Alaina Ghetti started her first year as a faculty liaison of the committee. Former WHS Latin teacher Lee Karsnoo used to be WSF’s faculty liaison but recommended Ghetti to the position. Ghetti shared her passion and desire of helping students through this foundation.

“Life is really expensive and the cost of an education has skyrocketed even since I went to college, which was only 20 years ago,” Ghetti said. “It’s important to me that all of our students can find pathways to their future career of choice. If there’s any way we can reduce financial barriers for any of our students, I’m passionate about helping them [get] to where they wanna go.”

Ghetti’s role in the program involves getting the message out to seniors, and providing perspective as a teacher at WHS. She makes sure that students take the opportunity to apply for the grant money and that they have as much chance of getting it as possible. Since Ghetti knows a lot of the students, she can serve as someone who students can go to if they have questions, instead of having to reach out to committee members who they may be less familiar with.

“I think that it’s important that everybody knows that there is support out there and we’re excited to help students,” Ghetti said. “If there are special circumstances that you or your family are facing, we want to help you navigate those circumstances as best as we can.”