Senior Named 2020 MLK Scholar

Kayla Mateo, a senior at Saint Bernard School, has been named a $20,000 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship recipient.

“I’m still in shock. I just can’t believe it,” she said, following a surprise Zoom call on Sept. 17^th with members of the scholarship trust fund.

The trust fund has awarded nearly 200 scholarships to students of color since its inception in 1968. And Kayla is one of only a handful of Saint Bernard students to ever receive the honor.

The recipients must reside and attend school in New London County are determined based on academic performance, citizenship, community service and financial need, according to Scholarship Trust Fund President James Mitchell.

Kayla is a founding member of the Diversity Awareness Committee at Saint Bernard School and plans to attend a four-year university in the United States after graduating high school.

“My dream is to continue my father’s legacy of becoming an engineer … and be the first in my family to have a Ph.D. in the science field,” she says.

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