SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – The Springfield Garden Club (SGC) is pleased to announce the winners of the Springfield Garden Club Scholarship and the Sandy MacGillivray Scholarship for 2024.
Abbigale Williams is the recipient of the 2024 Springfield Garden Club Scholarship. Williams lives in Andover, and is a graduate of Green Mountain Union High School in Chester, Vt. She will be attending Elmira College in New York this coming fall. Her major is in criminal justice, however, it is her minor that caught the attention of the garden club. She has a passion for the environment, and will be minoring in environmental science. “I want to help people, as well as my environment, thrive among each other. I want to keep everyone safe and help people use and respect the earth as they should,” says Williams.
The Garden Club Scholarship Committee will present Williams’ college with $1,000 for the first semester, and will follow that with an additional $1,000 for the second semester.
The winner of the 2024 Sandy MacGillivray Scholarship is Jacob Stockman, a graduate of Bellows Falls Union High School and student at River Valley Technical Center. This scholarship of $1,000 is given to one River Valley Technical Center student each year in remembrance of former teacher, SGC member, and outstanding citizen of Springfield Sandy MacGillivray. MacGillivray taught business courses at the tech center and at Springfield High School for many years. She loved to work with students, and to encourage and guide them in any way she could into living productive lives.
Stockman plans to major in elementary education at Vermont State University in Lyndon, Vt. He shared with the garden club members, “I am extremely excited to have the opportunity to pursue education. I have wanted to become a teacher since the sixth grade.”
The Springfield Garden Club is delighted to award these scholarships to two outstanding young adults. “We look forward to seeing them achieve their dreams, and we are happy to be able to support the efforts of Abbigale and Jacob,” says Barbara Riotte, SGC treasurer.
Written by Sandy Peplau, SGC scholarship chair.