Parkway Students Win Grants to Pursue Their Dreams

The Parkway Alumni Association awarded local students with nearly $22,000 in grants Monday evening, through its annual Granting Dreams program. Manchester and Town and Country schools had 58 students who received grants this year, for everything from tennis and technology camps to shadowing a teacher or architect.

Students applied for the grants by writing up detailed descriptions of their dreams, their plans for realizing those dreams, and how they would use the money or experience. Most grants come in the form of financial support, up to $250 per child, but some are fulfilled through mentoring or job shadowing with an alum in the student's dream career.

Jan Misuraca, executive director of Parkway Alumni Association, said the idea behind the program is that the application process gets students thinking about what it takes to achieve their dreams, and how to take the first few steps.

"If a child meets success in one area of their lives, typically that leads to motivation in other areas of their life," Misuraca said. "It absolutely has no limit, that's kind of the beauty of it. Whatever a child dreams they want to do when they grow up, we try to help them reach that dream."

For Nicole Ulmer, a senior at , the next step to pursuing her dream is joining the indoor drumline group Gateway Indoor. Ulmer has already auditioned and been accepted into the group as a marimba player, and will spend the next few months rehearsing and performing with the group around the U.S. She  graduates from Parkway South this weekend and plans to attend Truman State University in the fall. 

Ulmer's grant was provided through the John Baker Music Scholars fund, one of several memorial funds involved in the Granting Dreams Program. 

"We have quite a few memorial funds that people start to carry on the dreams of their loved ones after they've passed away by giving grants to students," Misuraca said.

Kamran Winschel, a fifth grader at , received his "Hockey Dreams" grant from another such fund, the Jason Johnson Memorial Fund. Jason Johnson was a football player who planned on becoming a social worker after college. His family set up the fund after he passed away, providing grants to students with interest in sports or social work. His mother was present at the ceremony Monday night to present Kamran with his hockey grant.

was well-represented at the ceremony, with 15 students receiving dream grants. George Mogannam, a sixth grader, will use the money to attend cello camp at Webster Groves Community Music School. He has been playing cello for three years now, and is finishing his fourth year in orchestra—he played violin before realizing he preferred its larger cousin. George's sister Victoria, a second grader at Oak Brook Elementary, also received a grant and will use it to take tap dancing lessons at Briscuso Dance Studio in Manchester.

Thomas Godsil, also a sixth grader at Southwest Middle School, received a grant to attend diabetic camp this summer. Camp EDI is in Fredericktown, MO and is an eight day residential camp teaching kids how to successfully manage their diabetes with exercise, diet and insulin. This will be Thomas's third year attending the camp and he is very excited.

had 18 students receive grants, including Katherine D'Ordine, a fourth grader who is using her grant to attend a tennis clinic at Wentzville Tennis Club. The clinic is seven weeks long and started at the beginning of April. Katherine has taken private tennis lessons before, but her mother said that being able to work with other kids has enabled her to work on strategy and teamwork in a way that she was missing before.

Colin Beveridge, a fifth grader at Henry Elementary, will be attending a technology camp at St. Louis Science Center this summer to explore his interest in electronics. His mother said that he likes taking things apart and figuring out how they work, so the camp will help him figure out how to apply that interest to a potential career. Colin's older sister, Jordan, is in seventh grade at Parkway West Middle School, and also technologically inclined. She will be using her grant to attend a robotics camp at the Science Center this summer.