Rotary Awards Scholarships to Four Area High School Seniors

(From left) Todd Lessig, president, Rotary Club of Lakewood and Rocky River; Molly Schmidt (Magnificat); Anthony Mod (Rocky River); Mary Chudy (Magnificat); Alexis Mod (Rocky River); and Jon Fancher, scholarship committee chair.

The Rotary Club of Lakewood and Rocky River awarded four college scholarships at its June 8 meeting. Graduating seniors Alexis Mod and Anthony Mod from Rocky River High School and Molly Schmidt and Mary Chudy from Magnificat High School each received $2,500 awards from the Lakewood-Rocky River Rotary Foundation.

The scholarships are part of over $50,000 that the club donates to the community each year.

In addition to their outstanding academic records, these four Rotary scholarship winners were chosen for extracurricular and community involvement.

Mary Chudy exemplifies Rotary International’s motto of “Service Above Self,” volunteering as a food pantry worker at Lakewood Community Services Center and co-leading Magnificat’s Students for Peace and Justice Club and Animal Lover’s Club. She is a National Honor Society member, having attained a grade point average of 4.3, which helped her land a position as a summer student intern at the Cleveland Clinic between her junior and senior years.

Mary embraces her cultural heritage as an assistant instructor for the Lučinā Slovak Folklore Ensemble. She is a multi-lingual student with proficiency in Slovak, English, and Spanish, and intends to continue her Spanish language studies at the Ohio State University where she will major in nursing.

Alexis Mod garnered a 4.675 grade point average, earning induction into the National Honor Society at Rocky River. She enriched her high school experience with extracurricular participation in drama, dance, and the marching band flag corps. She served as an instructor assistant at her dance studio and a counselor-in-training at Camp Bold Eagle for children living with challenging medical conditions. Alexis has been accepted into the pharmacy program at Ohio Northern University.

Anthony Mod is the twin brother of Alexis, and this unusual circumstance was a delightful surprise when scholarship selection committee members realized that two of its four finalists happened to be brother and sister! Anthony was a scholar-athlete-musician at Rocky River (3.984 grade point average), finding his time in the band every bit as rewarding as the time in the classroom or on the varsity hockey ice or varsity soccer field. He was Academic All-Ohio his senior year. Anthony will study medical laboratory technology at Bowling Green State University where he also plans to be part of the Falcon Marching Band.

Molly Schmidt was inducted into the National Honor Society at Magnificat, having earned a 3.946 grade point average. She ran cross-country for the last three years and was team captain her senior year. She spent the past two summers participating in the prestigious Student Research Internship at the Cleveland Clinic. In addition to her own school work, Molly tutored children at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School and held down various after-school jobs. She will study pre-medical neuroscience at the Ohio State University, with minors in Arabic and bioethics.

The Rotary Club of Lakewood and Rocky River is part of Rotary International, a worldwide organization of more than 1.2 million business, professional, and community leaders. Members of Rotary clubs (known as Rotarians) provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.

There are 33,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. Clubs are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds. As signified by the motto Service Above Self, Rotary’s main objective is service – in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world. To learn more, visit www.rotary.org.

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Volume 3, Issue 1, Posted 3:31 PM, 06.29.2015