[RP TownTalk] Lions Club Debuts Scholarships For GPAs, Service

[Riverdale Lions Club]

* Lions Club Debuts Scholarships For GPAs, Service*

*New Educational Funding To Be Presented At Sept. 26 Event*

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*Riverdale Park, MD. September 21, 2012* -- The Riverdale Lions Club and
Riverdale Park Council member and Lion Jonathan Ebbeler (Ward 1) today
announced the winners of their inaugural scholarship program that
recognizes two area students with $1,000 each in scholarship funding to
help further their educations.

Kelsey Jarman, of Riverdale Park, and Semira Tesfai, of Hyattsville, will
receive awards at the Sept. 26 when the Lions meet at the Riverdale Park
Town Hall at 7 pm while Riverdale’s Andrew Waldron will get an honorable
mention.

The students were selected for their top-end grade point averages upon
graduation from high school last spring and for their on-going commitments
to community service. Jarman, 17, who graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High
School with a 3.8 cumulative grade-point average, has just began her
freshman year at Towson University where she is studying physical therapy
and musical theater. She is intends to continue on to medical school.

With just a month of college under her belt, Jarman says she has discovered
that going away from school “is a really cool freedom” that she believes
will help her soar. “I go to class all day and do my homework in the
evening and I have great opportunities here.” She is surprised that her
hardest class of the week is acting class where she’s directed to think and
act outside her normal structured life. She’s learned that she’s “over
analyzing, over thinking and it’s a bit overwhelming.”

[image: Text Box: Semira Tesfai]Tesfai, 18, is currently attending the
University of Maryland/College Park where she intends to major in
communications and government with a focus politics. She hopes to earn
a masters
degree in Public Policy and have a career in education reform. Tesfai won
the respect of her teachers at Northwestern High by being a member of the
Honors Freshman English class, taking four AP classes and several honors
classes, joining the Mock Trial, International Studies, and the National
Honor Society clubs while playing on the school’s softball and soccer teams
and still maintaining a 3.1 GPA. And she also found time to serve as the
Eritrean Youth Group chairperson.


”I am beyond pleased and honored to have been selected as a recipient for
such an amazing award,” said Tesfai.


“Semira has the maturity, dedication and persistence to successfully
maneuver the academia at a four year institution,” said Yvette Wright, one
of her Northwestern counselors. “She has a compassionate nature and is
revered by her peers for her willingness to help, her competitiveness in
athletics and her general warm personality.”


The Lions and Council member Ebbeler, who joined the Lions Club last
spring, were impressed with the applications they received and have granted
an additional “honorable mention” award to Andrew Waldron of Riverdale. The
award comes with a $250 contribution to his education at the University of
Maryland/College Park. Waldon, who says he’s grateful for the recognition,
is a junior working on a BS in Psychology and Neuroscience.  He enjoys
working with the Takoma Pak Meals on Wheels and with the University of
Maryland Gymkana Troupe which performs at local schools educating children
about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.



 “The Lions Club is thrilled to create these scholarships and proud of our
young winners who exemplify the energetic and smart generation that will
make tomorrow’s leaders and tomorrow’s Lions,” said “King Lion” Patrick
Prangley. “I salute Councilman Ebbeler, who represents the essence of what
it means to be a Lion. I thank him for his generous financial contribution
to these scholarships and his tireless efforts to find such impressive and
worthy winners.”


 The Lions Club International is a 95-year-old secular service organization
with more than 1.3 million members worldwide and is perhaps best known for
its work with the blind and for its hearing and speech conservation,
diabetes awareness and youth outreach programs. The Riverdale Lions Club,
chartered in 1971, last year provided eye exams and glasses for more than
60 Riverdale area youth and needy persons, and distributed more than 50
food baskets to under privileged families at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Each
year, the group collects hundreds of used pairs of eyeglasses that are
refurbished and sent to people in need. The Riverdale Lions Club is also a
significant contributor to community arts and youth programs.

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*The Lions Club is seeking partners for the 2012 holiday food baskets
programs and for the 2013 scholarship awards program. For additional
information, or for a membership application for the Riverdale Lions Club,
contact immediate past King Lion Guy Tiberio at 240-375-8902, or
guytiberio at gmail.com. *

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