WEST ORANGE, NJ — The Orange/West Orange Chapter held its Scholarship and Awards Dinner on June 15 at Mayfair Farms in West Orange. One UNICO National Scholarship winner was announced and five local area high school students were awarded individual local memorial scholarships. Two Italian language scholarships were also given to high school students.
Henry Francis Taibi of Randolph, who will be attending the Rice University School of Architecture, was recognized for receiving the Major Don S. Gentile Memorial UNICO National Undergraduate Scholarship, a prize of $6,000 for which he was sponsored by the Orange/West Orange chapter.
Local scholarships in the amount of $1,500 were awarded to students based on their academic achievement, high school extracurricular activities, community service and work experiences. The students were selected by a committee of members, which was chaired by O/WO UNICO member Frank V. Gonnella.
West Orange High School’s Joshua Strauss received the Anthony F. & Flora Gonnella Memorial Scholarship; Seton Hall Prep’s John P. Hagan Jr. received the Vecchio Family Memorial Scholarship; WOHS’ Alessandra Pintado received an O/WO UNICO Scholarship in Memory of the Honorable Samuel Spina; SHP’s Jerraune Jenkins Jr. received an O/WO UNICO Scholarship; and Randolph High School’s Vincent D’Alessandro received the Frank & Carol Cannata Scholarship for the Arts.
Italian language scholarships were also awarded to students for outstanding academic achievement in the Italian language as selected by their teachers. Toby Ippolito of Seton Hall Prep received the O/WO UNICO Italian Language Scholarship and Brianna Attamante of WOHS received the Michele & Lucia Russo Italian Language Scholarship.
The evening was also highlighted by the installation of 10 new members to the O/WO Chapter of UNICO.
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