2020 Patricia Lynn Vermeulen-Tomocik (PLV) Scholarships
* Please note: As of 4/20/20, the deadlines for all three scholarships have been pushed back due to COVID-19. Please see details at bottom of page.
Scholarship season is here again! And the PLV Scholarship Board has exciting plans in store for this year’s program: three different scholarships will be awarded to graduating seniors in Orange County, all aimed at helping students who have achieved academic excellence while experiencing personal hardship. In contrast to last year’s program design, each of the three PLV Scholarships is tailored to a specific kind of student who must fulfill a unique set of eligibility criteria. Details and application documents are provided below for those who may be interested in applying. Also, if you haven’t already, please check out last year’s scholarship post to learn more about the inception of the PLV Scholarship Program before submitting your application.
The PLV Scholarship of Orange County
In the spirit of the original PLV Scholarship from 2019, this scholarship is open to graduating seniors who are residents of Orange County and who attend any high school in OC. It was established in loving memory of my mother Patricia (1952-2014) to recognize the astounding resilience of teens who have emerged from experiences of personal adversity with hard-earned insight and maturity. These kinds of life conditions, though painful, allow for the development of a stronger and more compassionate self, and ultimately the creation of a better world. My Mellow Brick Road offers a platform for their stories to be shared with broader communities as gifts that can throw light on difficult topics, celebrate differences while highlighting universality, and inspire others as they author their own life stories.
Partnership with the Newport Harbor Educational Foundation (NHEF)
As a way to maximize the impact of the PLV Scholarship Program, we are delighted to announce our recent partnership with the Newport Harbor Educational Foundation (NHEF), a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing the educational experiences of students at Newport Harbor High School. Since 1995, NHEF has provided a rich array of services and supportive measures to students in accordance with the “CLASS” model. The current student body — which comprises 2,367 students — benefits from NHEF’s mission to supply computers and classroom technology, learning assistance, academic enhancement, a safe school environment, and success after high school.
The PLV Scholarship Board’s decision to work in concert with NHEF began when a philanthropy services representative from my bank recommended that I meet with Diana Long, the executive director of NHEF. Diana gave my husband Shawn and me a fascinating and comprehensive walking tour of the high school last January. Needless to say, we were impressed with several aspects of the school, including its ability to support both academically oriented students through AP and IB courses and students interested in more vocational, “hands on” pursuits through its unique Career Technical Education (CTE) pathways programs. We were also, however, struck by the pressing needs of the school’s many economically disadvantaged students; as I’ve previously discussed on this blog, OC is not immune from the ravages of childhood poverty. Later on our tour, we were thrilled to hear that Diana had actively consulted Rosiana’s blog post about mental health conditions in adolescents as Diana worked to develop a mental wellness initiative at the high school — she sought to tackle this issue, like so many others, with the perspective of the teen student in the foreground of her investigative lens. Out of our visit arose the two PLV Scholarships offered exclusively to students at Newport Harbor High School: the PLV Humanities Scholarship and the PLV Vocational Scholarship.
The PLV Humanities Scholarship
When I reviewed applications for my brand new scholarship program last year, I was surprised and perhaps a little disheartened to discover that so few seniors had a desire to study humanities subjects at university; I can only recall one such student (Rosiana). As an English major myself, I was all too familiar with the usual remarks endured by humanities students when asked about their undergraduate programs: what did they plan to do with such a[n] [impractical] degree? Did they intend to go to law school afterwards, or maybe get an MBA to better prepare themselves for the “real world”? Or did I study literature for the only conceivable alternative: because I wanted to be a teacher? Of course, teaching is an immensely impactful and rewarding endeavor, but I couldn’t help but feel pigeonholed. After I graduated, I remember a friend (good-heartedly) joking that I could now use my English degree to become a barista.
Especially in America, business and law are often seen as more sensible choices, particularly in contrast to “following one’s passion” by studying an arts subject without an immediately practical end game. In addition, there seems to be a push for high school students of all genders to pursue comparatively modish STEM subjects (science-technology-engineering-mathematics) if they hope to become desirable and profit-generating employees in today’s job market. While disciplines like business and the sciences confer tremendous, incalculable advantages to individuals and to society and are incredible options for many people (Iliana included), I can’t help but notice the tendency toward a false dichotomy: follow one’s genuine intellectual interests in the humanities and graduate university educated but unemployable; or get one’s head out of the clouds [of youthful idealism], study something useful [practical and tangible], and get a good [high-paying] job.
But just as people can be passionate about obviously lucrative fields like medicine or law, majoring in a humanities subject can lead to excellent career and broader life opportunities. Graduates of any discipline are, after all, multidimensional human beings with complex personal histories and unique talents and attributes. People with degrees in subjects like philosophy, art history, and political science often find themselves in unexpected professional spheres that do not rely on the explicit recall of subject content so much as the ability to think critically, synthesize abstract material, and construct effective arguments — all transferable, process-driven skills that arise from the kinds of intellectual growth and inquiry achieved by arts students at the undergraduate level. In other words, they learn not what to think but how to think. The dividends yielded by the humanities may necessarily be less effable and concrete than those produced by more vocational qualifications, but they are no less valuable. And let’s not forget — as the English student in me feels compelled to say — that studying the humanities teaches us about what it means to be human, connecting us to the past and the future.
But enough of that — I’m eager to hear what the Sailors at Newport Harbor think.
The PLV Vocational Scholarship
As I’ve already noted, one of the most distinctive features of Newport Harbor High School is its Career Technical Education Program. I’ve had conversations with fellow Millennials about how, when we were in middle and high school in the early 2000s, we were consistently sold this idea that a four-year degree from a university was absolutely imperative to enjoy a successful and worthwhile career. From what I’m seeing so far, Generation Z seems to be receiving slightly less rigid messaging about what “success” in one’s profession can look like. Education, in its broadest sense, comes in myriad forms. Some students find that they are better suited to vocational programs and certifications over the more traditional university route. Students at Newport Harbor are fortunate in that they have the option of exploring vocational pathways while still in high school, including culinary arts, digital media, and even construction technology. Since students who wish to pursue postsecondary vocational education are frequently excluded from scholarship application criteria, I’ve decided to create a PLV Scholarship specially for them.
Details, Documents & Deadlines
The PLV Scholarship of Orange County application deadline: Wednesday, May 13, 2020 (the deadline was formerly on Sunday, May 3, 2020).
Recipient will be notified by: Wednesday, June 10, 2020
The PLV Humanities Scholarship application deadline: Sunday, May 10, 2020 (the deadline was formerly on Sunday, April 26, 2020).
Recipient will be notified by: Sunday, June 7, 2020
The PLV Vocational Scholarship application deadline: Sunday, May 10, 2020 (the deadline was formerly on Sunday, April 26, 2020).
Recipient will be notified by: Sunday, June 7, 2020
If you would like to apply for any of the three scholarships, please send all application materials and any inquiries you may have to plvscholarship@gmail.com. Last but not least, we gratefully accept donations and would like our donors to be aware that any funds we receive will expand the scholarship award amounts.
Many thanks for your interest in the PLV Scholarship Program, and best of luck to the students who apply!
