Music Boosters Scholarship is an award program that is designed to reward students who are interested in pursuing musical achievements from grades 5 to 12. Dedicated students that portray passion and success within their musical performance are recognized as they deserve the opportunity.

In order to be eligible, students submitted an application outlining their previous achievements such as school ensembles, all-county, NYSSMA, and music camps along with teacher recommendations, and completed an interview with judges.

According to the Monroe-Woodbury website, in the year of 2017, “M-W Music Boosters awarded almost $8,000 in scholarships and All-State/All-Eastern awards.”

They are able to give such scholarships due to all of the members of Music Boosters who showed support by paying membership dues, purchasing flowers and candy at concerts, and displaying Music Boosters car magnets.

“Thankfully, I was one of the recipients last year, and with that scholarship, I was able to fix my flute and buy new étude books,” said Yena Lee, a student who applied and earned this scholarship. “It is good to apply for this scholarship because you get money when you win it, and it gives an excuse for you to put a music resumé together and think about what music means to you.”

Applying for a scholarship leads students to be more independent and work hard to rightfully deserve this award.

“I worked by myself throughout this whole process, except asking for teacher recommendations, so just the application itself takes an extra time,” said Lee.

However, Lee said that applying is worth the time because “you get money when you win it, and…I was able to look back at myself and recognize how much music affects my life.”

2017 Music Boosters scholarship recipients were:

Grade 9- Alyssa Kamara, Brett Laderman

Grade 10- Yena Lee, Tessa Lytle, Davyd Mordvynenko

Grade 11- Natalie Davidson, Alex Prizgintas, Keianna Wen

Grade 12- Christine Bjorkman, Talia Itzcowitz, Erin Donnelly

All-State recognition award-Kristina Boylan (alternate), Angela Prictoe, Tyler Schacher, Rocky Nardone (alternate), Keianna Wen (alternate)

All-Eastern recognition award-Tyler Schacher