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Before the applause faded at the Rotary Club of Marblehead’s annual scholarship luncheon Thursday, Nancy Gwin paused to put the moment in perspective.
“These five scholarships represent more than just financial support,” Gwin told the assembled Rotarians. “They represent an investment in potential, excellence and the bright future of our recipients.”
The club awarded five $5,000 scholarships to students selected from 44 submissions — chosen not only for academic achievement but for resilience, leadership and community involvement. Two of the awards honor former Rotarians. One goes to a student now in her second year of college. All five recipients, Gwin said, embody the club’s motto: service above self.
The first scholarship, presented for the inaugural time this year, honors Carl Siegel — a Rotarian for nearly 35 years, club treasurer for about 25 of them, Korean War-era Navy veteran, lawyer, mechanical engineer and craftsman whose handmade signs still stand in front of schools, parks and the waterside cemetery across Marblehead. The Carl Siegel Scholarship went to Will Cruickshank, who is headed to Middlebury College to study international politics and economics.
Cruickshank’s record at Marblehead High School reads like someone who rarely sat still. Elected class president three times, he also served as student representative to the Marblehead School Committee, captained three varsity teams — cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track — played trumpet in the concert band and mentored incoming students as a peer leader. His five-year involvement with Project 351, a statewide youth service organization, grew from ambassador in 8th grade to alumni leader and senior legacy fellow. Gwin said service above self resonates with Cruickshank because he sees leadership as rooted in commitment to others.
The Donald J. Humphrey Scholarship carries its own history. It honors a Marblehead Rotarian who enlisted in the United States Marine Corps the day after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, fought in the South Pacific and, at 87, renewed his pilot’s license just to fly over Marblehead one last time. The scholarship is tied to military service, and this year’s recipient, Chloe Rowland, carries that connection through her father, Grant Rowland — a West Point graduate, former Army officer and Iraq combat veteran.
Rowland plans to study business and marketing, with law school as a possible next step. At Marblehead High School she was president of her freshman class, vice president of the Interact Club for four years, a field hockey captain and a lacrosse player who also refereed and coached youth games. She volunteered with seniors and with Best Buddies, an organization supporting students with special needs.
Grey Collins, headed to Tufts University to study political science, has already been doing the work of a journalist. As editor-in-chief of the Marblehead High School Headlight, he leads a student newsroom. He has worked as an intern, freelance journalist and photojournalist for the Marblehead Current, represented Marblehead High School at Massachusetts Student Government Day at the State House, co-founded the school’s chapter of the Rho Kappa Social Studies Honor Society and was elected a delegate to the 2026 Massachusetts Democratic State Convention.
“I learned in our most divided moments how good reporting can have the power to push back the tide of apathy and bring us together,” Collins said.
Eldar Yohorau arrived in the United States from Belarus 10 years ago, speaking Russian and beginning again. At Marblehead High School he made high honor roll every quarter for four years, earned College Board AP Scholar with Distinction honors and was recognized by Massachusetts for top performance on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam. He co-founded the school’s chess club, plays competitive chess, gives lessons and runs a YouTube channel teaching logic, programming and game design to more than 800 subscribers. He has also performed the national anthem at school and town events. His family’s journey, Yohorau said, taught him that success demands dedication, perseverance, kindness, honesty and respect for others.
The fifth scholarship, awarded to a current college student, went to Eliza Kay, a Marblehead High School graduate who finished her first year at Syracuse University with a 4.0 GPA and a designation as a Success Scholar. She joined Alpha Chi Omega, whose philanthropic work supports families affected by domestic violence, and crews for CitrusTV, the university’s live student broadcast.
Kay entered Syracuse as a psychology major. A social problems course changed that. Studying redlining, she recognized how federal housing policy had shaped conditions in Salem’s Point neighborhood — a place she had visited on a high school field trip. The connection between policy and people’s lives led her to switch her major to political science, so she could, as she wrote in her scholarship essay, work on policies that improve lives “not of individuals but groups of people, which in turn gives us healthier and more just communities.”
The Rotary Club also awarded $10,000 in camperships this year. Gwin thanked the Rotarians whose year-round fundraising made both possible — a reminder that the investment in these five students began long before their names were called.
