2021 Andona Scholarship Recipients

Congratulations to the class of 2021 and congratulations to our  2021 scholarship recipients!!! 

Amanda was part of the Global Pathways Scholars Program for all four years of high school. Amanda’s mission as a Global Citizen is to improve the world of healthcare and use her knowledge to help, heal, and protect patients locally, nationally, and internationally. She has volunteered at Lawrence General Hospital and Mary Immaculate Nursing Home and has also been extremely involved in youth ministry at St. Augustine’s Parish.  She has logged over 1000 service hours in community outreach.  As a result of the pandemic she founded an outreach program called “Thinking of You Ministry.”   She lead over 100 teens and families in the making of 1000 plus notes and bracelets for residents, doctors, nurses, and first responders. Amanda is also a 3-sport varsity athlete. Next year, Amanda will be bringing that light to Vanderbilt University, where she will major in Medicine, Health, and Society with a concentration in Global Health. Congratulations Amanda!

Akshay  is an Eagle Scout speaking volumes to his commitment to giving back to the community in which we all live.  He has devoted over 300 hours to community service hours as Scout.  He has also been involved in Destination Imagination for over 13 years participating and leading teams.  For his eagle Scout Project he helped the Destination Imagination community by creating sewing, woodworking, and electronics kits and putting together instructional videos to enable teams who would otherwise be limited, to learn new skills and come up with more advanced solutions for their challenges.  We understand Akshay’s mantra is innovation, collaboration, challenge yourself to higher level thinking, and always striving to do something more.  He will be attending Purdue in the fall, where he will be majoring in integrated business and engineering, and possibly minoring in computer science.  We wish him all the best!

Kevin is this year’s Andona Perseverance and Character award winner.  This is a special award because the recipient is chosen by the teachers and guidance counselors at Andover High School.  We learned Kevin shows outstanding perseverance and strength of character.  In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball and soccer.  He also volunteers in his community at places such as Cor Unum.  Kevin plans to pursue a college degree at UMass Lowell in a Business-related career.  We wish him all the best!

Alfonso is a true leader who is committed to issues of social justice.  He attended the St. John’s Prep Leadership Institute, he was a member of the school’s Gender Task Force, and he received the Spires Society Award.  He has excelled as captain of his varsity crew team and is passionate about sailing.  Afonso is a member of Community Boating, Inc. or CBI, on the Charles River in Boston.  While at CBI, he devoted over 100 volunteer hours to the Junior program there, he also volunteers at Bread and Roses and Lazarus house.  Alfonso plans to have a career in either environmental or civil engineering and to be able to continue his work on social justice and climate change.  He will begin this journey next year at Purdue, where he will study mechanical engineering within its Polytechnic Institute. Congratulations!

Pratheek is the recipient of the Anita Howe Memorial Scholarship, an award given in memory of Andona’s first president and one of its founding members.  Pratheek was selected to receive this scholarship because he displayed an exceptional commitment to community service.  In addition to his scholarship check, he also had the opportunity to select an Andover community service group or nonprofit organization to which Andona would award $500 in his name, Pratheek has chosen AYS.  When the pandemic struck and he learned about the shortage of proper PPE among healthcare professionals.  Pratheek took it upon himself to find a solution to this problem by founding the Coronavirus PPE Team.  He coordinated with school administrators, recruited a team of helpers, secured 12 3D printers, gathered other necessary materials, and 3d printed over 2,000 face shields for hospital workers and other professionals in need. He started out printing a few face shields a day and eventually got approval to move his operation to the Andover Youth Center, where he spent over 50 hours each week prototyping, assembling, and delivering masks to major national and international hospitals, low-income nursing homes, and other essential businesses.  He organized a town-wide initiative to gather materials to produce even more masks, created a website to document his progress, and spearheaded a major fundraising campaign to cover production costs.  This project was featured in the Boston Globe, the Eagle Tribune, and the Andover Townsman, as well as CBS Boston News, NECN, Boston 25, and more.  Pratheek was honored by the New England Revolution professional soccer team with their Hometown Hero Award for his work on the Coronavirus PPE Team.  Pratheek will be attending Rice University in Houston, he will work toward his career goals in the medical field, aiming to help minority and underprivileged populations in Houston. We wish him all the best.