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PORTLAND –Two high school seniors, including one from St. Dominic Academy in Auburn, have been named as the 2020 Lila Grace Sullivan Amirault Scholarship winners.
Avery Greco, a student at St. Dominic, and Daniella Niedermeyer, a story at Cheverus High School in Portland, will each will receive $4,500 to put towards their college tuition/
“It was immediate excitement, immediate. I read the email, and it was like, ‘Oh, my gosh,'” said Greco.
“I was very excited about it. It will make the financial burden a little bit easier to go to college and possibly grad school after that,” said Niedermeye. “I also feel honored because I know some of the other people who applied, and I have a lot of respect for them. I think they deserve it probably more than I do.”
The Lila Grace Sullivan Amirault Scholarship Fund was established in 2013 by Patrick Amirault, now deceased, through the Catholic Foundation of Maine. Amirault established the fund to honor the memory of his wife, Lila, and to show gratitude for the care and quality education he received while attending a Catholic school in Malden, Massachusetts, where he grew up, one of nine children in a poor family. To be eligible for the scholarship, students must be accepted at an accredited college or university and must plan to work while attending college.
The winners have displayed strong work ethics, leadership skill and a commitment to serving others throughout their high school years, according to a news release from the Diocese of Portland.
“I want to be the best I can be,” said Grevo. “I want to be thoughtful. I want to be giving.”
Greco became an altar server at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Sabattus at a young age and has also served a minister of holy Communion during school Masses.
She also volunteered at the Good Shepherd Food Bank in Auburn and at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, and she helped decorate homemade wreaths for the Christmas by the Lake Fair held at St. Philip Church in Auburn. In addition, as a member of the St. Dom’s tennis team, she volunteered for Special Olympics, keeping score for matches.
“It was so fun to see them compete against each other and to see them get excited about getting a point,” she said. “I just felt so happy to be a part of such a great organization.”
She has also been a captain of the tennis team for three years, and for the past two years, she has been a captain of the field hockey team. She and two friends also started a volleyball/spike ball club at the school.
“We would just play, and play, and play,” she said. “We would get people in my class involved. It was just so much fun.”
She and Neidermeyer both said their desire to serve comes from the example set by their families and the values that are part of their faith.
Both also have grade point averages above 4.0. Both are members of the National Honor Society and both have been class leaders. Greco is her class vice president and a member of the student senate, as well as a member of the school’s math team.
“I think St. Dom’s has done a great job preparing me for college. All my siblings (five) went through St. Dom’s, and they’ve been successful in college, and they’ve been so prepared,” said Greco.
She plans to major in chemical engineering at the University of Maine.
The Amirault Scholarship Endowment is just one of many endowments established through the Catholic Foundation of Maine to support the work of the Church in Maine.
