Kennedy grad wins scholarship for his community service

Aaron Birnbaum, a recent graduate of Kennedy High School, received the South Merrick Community Civic Association’s Franklin M. Soling Memorial Scholarship at Kennedy’s senior awards night on May 29. Birnbaum will apply the funds from the scholarship toward the costs of attending Brandeis University this fall.

He never applied for the Soling Scholarship, but his teachers and SMCCA selected him to win the award based on the strength of his community service activities. For the last two school years, Birnbaum was vice president of Kennedy’s H.O.P.E. (Helping Our Planet Earth) club, facilitating recycling, cleanup and beautification projects and environmental awareness campaigns at Kennedy. He also served as vice president of the Merrick Jewish Centre’s chapter of United Synagogue Youth, working on the organization’s calendar, newsletters and website design. A viola player and member of Kennedy’s orchestral ensembles, Birnbaum participated in “Playback,” a group of Kennedy students who this year began performing music at area nursing homes. He also helped raise money for cancer research through the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, and during one summer in high school he volunteered at the Merrick Library to work with younger students in kindergarten through middle school to improve their reading.

“Mr. Birnbaum exemplifies the meaning of giving back to the community as demonstrated by his various endeavors,” wrote SMCCA president Joe Baker in an email.

Birnbaum remembered being called to the Kennedy auditorium stage to receive the scholarship as “a very proud moment.”

“Through the last four years of high school I haven’t been thinking of awards, I just liked playing music with my peers in orchestra, and then playing music to seniors in nursing homes,” he said.

SMCCA’s scholarship is named in memory of Franklin Soling, a founding member of the civic association who passed away in 2010.