WINNERS OF THE TWO NHS CLASS OF 1963 SCHOLARSHIPS FOR 2019
In 2019, we were pleased to award two NHS Class of 1963 scholarships, each worth $2,000, to two well qualified seniors from the Class of 2019....... Aiden Maria and Amanda Mwangi.
In selecting Aiden Maria for one of this year’s NHS-1963 scholarships, we acknowledge and congratulate him for his volunteer work at parties and various fundraising events at New England Pediatrics, a residential facility for mentally handicapped children. We also understand that he intends to major in Biological Sciences at Nashua Community College and hopes to follow that up by pursuing a career in marine biology, acquiring his own boat and helping to address the challenge of saving the earth’s endangered coral reefs. Those are very lofty goals and we applaud Aiden for his desire to help address this global environmental issue.
In selecting Amanda Mwangi for the 2nd of two NHS Class of 1963 scholarships, in addition to your very impressive academic achievements while a student at NHS South, we were pleased to learn of your participation in several voluntary church-sponsored functions, and also at one of the local elementary schools, leading children’s activities and helping young students with homework. We are pleased to learn that you have been a member of HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America). We are confident this experience will help you find the success you are seeking in the healthcare field - your chosen field of study at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.
In 2019, we were pleased to award two NHS Class of 1963 scholarships, each worth $2,000, to two well qualified seniors from the Class of 2019....... Aiden Maria and Amanda Mwangi.
In selecting Aiden Maria for one of this year’s NHS-1963 scholarships, we acknowledge and congratulate him for his volunteer work at parties and various fundraising events at New England Pediatrics, a residential facility for mentally handicapped children. We also understand that he intends to major in Biological Sciences at Nashua Community College and hopes to follow that up by pursuing a career in marine biology, acquiring his own boat and helping to address the challenge of saving the earth’s endangered coral reefs. Those are very lofty goals and we applaud Aiden for his desire to help address this global environmental issue.
In selecting Amanda Mwangi for the 2nd of two NHS Class of 1963 scholarships, in addition to your very impressive academic achievements while a student at NHS South, we were pleased to learn of your participation in several voluntary church-sponsored functions, and also at one of the local elementary schools, leading children’s activities and helping young students with homework. We are pleased to learn that you have been a member of HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America). We are confident this experience will help you find the success you are seeking in the healthcare field - your chosen field of study at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.
WINNER OF THE FIRST ANNUAL RICHARD CABRAL MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
This year, the Nashua High School Class of 1963 is pleased to announce that the first annual Richard Cabral Memorial Scholarship has been awarded to an accomplished young student named Hailey Sweeney, a graduating senior at NHS South Class of 2019. In selecting Hailey for this $2,000 award, the NHS South Scholarship Committee recognized Hailey's lengthy list of honors and awards, many extracurricular activities, and her work and volunteer experience --- all of which were accomplished with a remarkable "can do" attitude in the spirit of our friend and classmate, Dick Cabral. At the awards ceremony, Steve Doris introduced this scholarship with the following remarks:
"This year, the NHS Class of 1963 is pleased to award a new, additional (3rd) scholarship, which like the two NHS Class of 1963 scholarships, will continue to be awarded each and every year into the future. The Richard Cabral Memorial Scholarship shall honor the generosity and support of our friend and fellow classmate, the late Dick Cabral and his wife Wendy Cabral. Since tonight is the first opportunity to award the Cabral scholarship, let me tell you all a bit about Dick Cabral. Dick Cabral was one of my very close friends growing up in the Nashua school system. Dick and I were on the same Little League team (as was Tom Osgood by the way). Dick and I were also teammates on the St Patrick’s CYO basketball team, and teammates on the NHS State championship baseball team in 1962 and 1963. Near the end of my sophomore year, Dick also played matchmaker and fixed me up with a pretty young lady named Noreen who became my high school sweetheart and my one and only wife for nearly 53 years. Anyway, Dick grew up on the poor side in Nashua during the 50’s and 60’s. The Cabrals were a wonderful family (I knew them all) but the ”income to expense ratio” wasn’t so favorable, and they were forced (or maybe chose) to move from apartment to apartment often, sometimes several times in a year. I believe by the time Dick graduated from NHS in 1963, he had actually lived in eight of Nashua’s nine wards – and that must be a municipal record. |
While Dick came from an impoverished background, he was always incredibly upbeat, extremely social, very intelligent, highly motivated to succeed and vowed never to be poor himself. He married early, became a parent early… put himself through night school while working a full-time job at Hampshire Chemical, earned an accounting degree from Merrimack college. And then he bought his first apartment house. And then his 2nd, and then another, and another and many more. To make a long story short, Dick parlayed his early success as a landlord in Nashua to become a hugely successful real estate developer nationwide….. with holdings in Nashua, up and down the East Coast, in the greater Phoenix AZ area and also in Florida.
Dick loved his high school days, and the friends he grew up with in Nashua. Dick provided financial support for all of our class reunions --- his blood ran purple. In more recent years, he was instrumental, both conceptually and financially in the establishment our class’s “giving back to NHS” program, most notably the Scholarship Endowment Fund. It is therefore most fitting that the NHS Class of 1963 honor Dick Cabral and his memory with a scholarship in his name, and which shall be awarded to a graduating senior who exemplifies the spirit of Dick Cabral --- an applicant viewed by the faculty at NHS South as an "overachiever" during high school; a student who has overcome obstacles in order achieve his or her special level of academic accomplishment, a student who demonstrates a positive, highly motivated, "can do" attitude, and who has achieved success in spite of challenges out of their direct control.
This year the NHS South Scholarship Awards Committee has chosen HAILEY SWEENEY as winner of the first $2,000 Richard Cabral Memorial Scholarship. Congratulations Hailey."
Dick loved his high school days, and the friends he grew up with in Nashua. Dick provided financial support for all of our class reunions --- his blood ran purple. In more recent years, he was instrumental, both conceptually and financially in the establishment our class’s “giving back to NHS” program, most notably the Scholarship Endowment Fund. It is therefore most fitting that the NHS Class of 1963 honor Dick Cabral and his memory with a scholarship in his name, and which shall be awarded to a graduating senior who exemplifies the spirit of Dick Cabral --- an applicant viewed by the faculty at NHS South as an "overachiever" during high school; a student who has overcome obstacles in order achieve his or her special level of academic accomplishment, a student who demonstrates a positive, highly motivated, "can do" attitude, and who has achieved success in spite of challenges out of their direct control.
This year the NHS South Scholarship Awards Committee has chosen HAILEY SWEENEY as winner of the first $2,000 Richard Cabral Memorial Scholarship. Congratulations Hailey."