Monroeville Rotary awards $5,000 in scholarships to 5 recent Gateway High School graduates

Five recent Gateway High School graduates received $1,000 scholarships on July 8 during a meeting held in the Doubletree Hilton Hotel in Monroeville.

Srilekha Sapram, who will be attending the University of Pittsburgh, received the Bill Segar Academic scholarship. The scholarship is named in honor of Bill Segar who was a longtime rotary and Gateway School Board member before he died in 2018.

Mark Segar, one of Bill Segar’s four children, presented the scholarship, for the first time, to Sapram. Mark Segar said he was honored to give a scholarship away under his father’s name.

This was the third year the rotary has awarded the scholarship.

“It’s an honor to represent my dad for something he supported,” Mark Segar said. “My dad has always had the rotary and community in mind with everything he has done.”

Sapram said the scholarship came as a surprise.

“I did not expect this but it is great to receive this from the rotary,” she said. “I respect them and the service they contribute so much.”

The other rotary scholarship recipients were Christa Davey (Geneva College), Olivia Schrank (Penn Sate University), Jaelyn Jennings (Temple University) and Gabriella Lo Tito (Duquesne University).

Members of the rotary introduced each recipient who gave a thank you speech afterward. Two recipients — Schrank and Lo Tito — were unable to attend the event. Schrank’s mother accepted the scholarship on her behalf.

The five recipients were chosen out of an estimated 90 applicants, rotary member Susan DeLaney said.

Judges picked the recipients based on extracurricular activities, service, essays, academics and Zoom interviews. The Bill Segar scholarship emphasized academics, while the rotary scholarships focused more on community service and activities.

Jennings said she was excited when she found out she was selected for the scholarship.

“I was really excited to receive it from a group that is helping out its community,” Jennings said.

Davey said she was confident after her interview that she would receive a scholarship.

“I have been working my whole life to get here, so I was looking forward to this moment,” she said.