Kiwanis supports college-bound students

Three high school seniors from Valley Stream will receive some help for college expenses from the Kiwanis Club as they go off to school in the fall.

The club presented the students with $500 checks at its annual scholarship dinner on June 18 at Café Marcello. The students were chosen from a pool of approximately 20 applicants.

South High School seniors Bryan Rosado and Moneba Zaman and North High senior Kara Filippi were chosen because of their commitment to community service coupled with their dedication to their academics.

Karin Hayat, the club’s president and coordinator of the scholarship program, said that while the scholarship was only for high school seniors who lived in Valley Stream, the club opened it up to more of the Catholic high schools on Long Island. She sent the scholarship information to the schools’ guidance offices.

After the students applied, Hayat said she covered the names from the applications, wrote down their information and entered that into a pool. The club then voted on the candidates for the scholarship without knowing who they were.

While the club did look at each candidate’s academic standing, community service was the deal-breaker in the decision process, because serving the community is what the Kiwanis Club does.

Rosado, who moved to Valley Stream from Queens in the seventh grade, will attend Molloy College to study business and hopes to one day open his own studio. He used his passion for music and working a soundboard to help with Bethlehem Assembly of God’s services.

He also worked sound for plays at South and said that during high school he has completed nearly 300 hours of community service, including his work on a sound board, tutoring and babysitting. He said he believes that’s why he was chosen for the scholarship and plans to use the money for books.

“I’m very honored that they chose me,” he said. “The money will be used in important ways to help my education.”

Zaman will study health sciences at Brooklyn College and wants to become an emergency physician. She found her love for medicine while volunteering at Franklin Hospital and seeing her brother go through medical school.