001hello um welcome to the amherst regional high school's first uh um celebration of john and abigail adams scholars um i'm just hoping to have a little bright light in in our in our quarantine moment um i'm gonna hand the the the mic so to speak the virtual mic over to to our principal talib sadiq um just to welcome you all right hello everybody i hope you're all in good health and spirits and warm and cozy on this snowy day before our holiday break begins hope you're looking forward to the break as much as i am nice change of pace just want to welcome everybody and express my gratitude to all the students and their families for giving us a reason to celebrate today it's good to have joy in everything we can do and one
002of the things that brings you the most joy is celebrating our students accomplishments so i thank you and i know you'll go on to bigger and better things and i hope in all you do that you find joy and happiness thank you take care all right thank you mr sadiq i appreciate it uh so i i want to just take a a quick moment just to go over the program i'm learning my technology here with this with this awesome application so um i don't think you're gonna lose me but i wanna i am gonna share the screen just to let you know what we're gonna do today let's see if i can make that happen all right yeah there we are okay so for today we we have let's see let's make sure i have
003this right yeah okay so uh principal sadiq said hello and we are we have um introductions um from me i'm going to introduce our speakers um and then i want to what i'm going to do is open it up to questions which you will be able to place in the chat box um so that we can answer your questions um that that you have for our speakers about um the john and abigail adams award and um and and the benefits that it provides uh so first the introductions if i can find them okay here we go all right this is easy all right so mike drisch is is the director of um first year admissions at umass amherst that would be you awardees next year he's one of um that's one of four undergraduate campuses
004in the umass system he leads a very successful and talented admissions office some of you may have been in contact with them and mike has eight over 18 years of experience in admissions at leading public and private universities across the country he's married and has three children under seven years old who are probably covered in snow laura jefferson is a umass amherst graduate for both her bachelor's degree sport management which is pretty cool and master's degree in higher education she actually used the john and abigail adams scholarship when she attended for her bachelor's degree currently she's an assistant director of financial aid services and she has been in financial aid for almost 17 years now for her entire financial aid career laura has overseen the john and abigail adams scholarship program for the umass amherst
005office so we have a pro right in our midst and lastly and not leastly we have harold santiago harold santiago is the bilingual's admissions counselor for holyoke community college and like talent siddique an alum from the class of 1990. mr siddique is class of 1988 but in a lump from amherst high school which is awesome he lives and works in the city of holyoke mass with his beautiful wife mariella santiago and their three boys also covered in snow raphael harold jr and gabrielle all right so uh what we're gonna do is i'm gonna i'm gonna remove myself and we're gonna have mike speak first okay let's see if i can do that uh let's see there's a way to make that happen ah there we go does this work great everyone can see me i
006i have to say i'm gonna take harold's line from because i didn't put that i have a beautiful wife and i really like that so i need to to earn some points but hello everyone um these are always you know virtual events are always so tough because we don't get to see one another um but you know so excited to be here this afternoon um to join you um on behalf of the university of massachusetts system and really all of the four-year public universities across the commonwealth congratulations on qualifying for the john and abigail adams scholarship um as you heard my name is mike drisch and as the director of first year admissions i am based at umass amherst um right here in amherst mass um all of us are so proud um to have
007umass here in in western mass and that said though um you're in a location and i'm sure many of you know that there are a lot of options in front of you you're going to be admitted to a number of college universities we live in a state and in a region with a lot of choice when it comes to college and university and so there can be a natural desire to look afar for a college university setting that you will call home and i can actually relate to that i was the first in my family to go to college i didn't grow up in western mass i grew up in rural western illinois and my college search started with looking a pretty big distance from home and at places that were very different than my
008large public high school setting but as as i started to compare different college and university settings i kept coming back to some things that ultimately drew me to stay close to home and attend my state flagship institution i'm a few of those those elements are hallmarks of any public university system especially umass and those include diverse students who reflect a rich array of backgrounds an incredible education and an amazing price that would ultimately prepare me for the real world the chance to be a part of a place where i could not only gain knowledge and perspective but myself contribute and make a difference and give back and finally and i think one of the most important reasons is the size and scope of the network hundreds of thousands of living alumni that are connected to
009that place everyone knows a name like umass or whatever other public flagship institution you're looking at you never have to explain where you went to college um so you are very fortunate um all of you that are here today to live in a state with so many public universities that provide a wide range of educational settings and experiences and at a value that's hard for any university outside of massachusetts or even a private university to match if you have had a chance to i would highly recommend continue to explore um the options across the state every umass campus is in a very different location every state university in massachusetts is in a very different location and that alone makes for a different campus culture and a different campus setting um that contributes to what makes
010that place special or may appeal to you um i of course am bias toward the umass system it is the only public research university system in massachusetts if you aren't aware we're home to four undergraduate campuses the amherst campus and then boston dartmouth and lowell when there's the medical school in worcester over 75 000 students from all backgrounds are enrolled in the umass system and the faculty who are there teaching you include nobel laureates pulitzer prize winners and members of the national academies many of you living in amherst may be familiar with some of those faculty who teach i'm at our umass campus right here and as i mentioned one of the biggest benefits of a public university but especially umass is that network we have over 500 000 alumni across the globe and so
011those four years at umass amherst or another umass campus can lead to such happiness and success if you want to stay in massachusetts or the nice thing is it opens doors in the 49 other states and hundreds of countries worldwide so and in closing one thing that most of you know because you live in amherst is our tagline is be revolutionary um i love anytime i was a history major so i love the acknowledgment of john and abigail adams they were revolutionaries massachusetts itself is a revolutionary place it's an innovative place we challenge the status quo we drive progress forward here at umass and across massachusetts and all of our public universities embody that so i hope that your path to college will ultimately lead you to a public university system either here in massachusetts
012or elsewhere but ultimately congratulations again on this recognition you've earned it i wish you the best and azure i hope that you go into this winter break and find some joy this holiday season as we all continue to find um our times or find our way through these times but so thrilled to be here um and just add some um congratulations and um answer any questions so thank you i'm not hearing anything that's that i'm pretty sure the epitaph on my uh gravestone is going to say you're muted because it happens all day long i'm really happy um but here's here's laura jepson i'm going to stop talking um and i hope my sound is working i've actually never used this platform before hopefully this was okay um but i just wanted to say hi
013to everyone and um thank you so much for having me and to all of you on receive the john and adams uh teacher mentioned not 17 years but seven years i'm not quite that old yet financially 17 years and a lot longer i'm here to explain today how the the john m adam scott means in terms of your natural aid award um and there's so many financial aid to going to here when you're applying for schools and next year through a college career i just want to be ever on the same page in that a scholarship is money you do not have to pay back uh we call gift day you call it free money um but it is money you do not have to pay back versus alone but you have to pack with
014stress so please remove that and take a long present and you don't that is not free money um all the information i'm going to go over should be included with your award letter but i just wanted to reiterate some points the john abigail adams scholarship is available to use at any massachusetts institution that's any umass within the umass system any state university and any community college within massachusetts and you're eligible to receive the award for up to eight semesters so as far as amounts go i can speak to umass amherst it's one thousand seven hundred and fourteen dollars a year so over the four years that's 6800 um that you've just been awarded with your scholarship so it's really expensive umass amherst and umass boston are about the same amount right now at 1 714
015a year for the award the state universities are between 100 and a thousand dollars per year and the community college average around 750 for the award so that's just a great chunk of money that you've received so excite you i love this program um so in terms of the award and what it means for tuition i can only spend be immersed so that's the example i'm going to give you it's fall or next summer i should say you're going to receive a bill and it's going to be a large not large tuition bill that covers your tuition and fees so you'll have one more sum labeled at coverage and mandatory fees committed to one that's your feeling fee service fee and your mandatory health insurance so you'll receive that bill and once the abigail adams
016is received will be done 1714. so you'll have your tuition minus the 17 and that will be the total and one thing briefly i just wanted to talk about as well as you receive this award you do have some responses on your interest award very important and i just wanted to make sure we covered you need to submit your letter to the flight office wherever you decide to attend unfortunately we don't know you've received it another you're going to get and say and awarded thing you need to do every the free application for federal student aid which is your fafsa financial aid you will hear hopefully many have already did your but you will submit it per year to receive the award where you plan to receive additional financial aid or now and then the
017third thing that's required of the scholarship is that you contain a point of cumulative so those are the big three that are important which once again will be mentioned in the official award letter you received so you don't have to memorize this or write any of this down i just wanted to also please reach out to our financial aid office at umass amherst or any other financial office whatever institution you just attend um number one is to help doing financial aid process easier for you i know it's it seems overwhelming our job is to make it easy just reach out to us and i just want to wish you all the best of luck especially um during these crazy times and thank you so much for having me i'm here thank you so much laura
018i appreciate it i we're i think we're learning to sort of deal with intermittent and and and realities around um uh internet connectivity so i i actually put your points and main points in your chat but it's true there you want to hang on to the letter and here's the deal about the letter even if you lose it we actually made copies of it so um i don't want to encourage you to lose your letters um i know they're in the mail but but if you end up stuck we have a copy for you just in case like you get to august and it's in the pile of things in the pile of things in the basement so um next i want to um add um harold santiago's voice to our conversation um and hear
019what he has to say thank you laura thank you deidra and uh for allowing me the opportunity to address this year's abigail adams scholars um as a proud amherst alum of the class of 1990 i want to congratulate all of you on your accomplishments after this year 2020 2021 i'm certain that this class of graduates will be experts in the field of online learning we spend so much time every day in front of the computer that i'm sure whatever method you choose to take when you go to college whether it is online or if we continue to be online you guys will be experts in that field more importantly um we want you to be prepared for whatever college throws at you and this year i believe in year and a half that you've been
020going gone through has prepared you for your future uh remember that college is a marathon and not a sprint there's there's going to be some bumps in the roads there's going to be some curves but just remember to take a breath slow down make sure you take a moment to thank all your parents your family members your teachers your guidance counselors and more importantly give yourself a congratulations pat yourselves on the backs for completing this accomplishment and congratulate yourselves again i am the admissions rep for holyoke community college i am your onboarding plane to hcc or uh counselor for whatever uh reason you need whether it's checking in on your financial aid if you're going to hcc uh whether you need assistance in connecting for the placement test or scheduling your classes not only i'm
021the admissions rep but i'm also your advisor moving forward if you choose to come to hcc um i am going to put my my contact information in the chat for those of you who would like to reach out um and again i just want to congratulate you all on this accomplishment and uh good luck in your future endeavors did i lose everybody oh here we are we go way back so it's kind of fun to sort of harold and i worked together in in springfield and then uh he showed up in my in in the office in amherst and i realized like that he had come from um the wonderful uh institution that is amherst regional high school so i i feel like i filled in some blanks about why he was such an awesome
022guy um i do want to just briefly uh congratulate you on on the john and abigail adams award i also want to sort of give a little caveat um you are getting an award for your 10th grade knowledge um and and that is amazing it's like retroactive award uh and i and i do want to say i'm hoping that you have grown in the last two years um and i also want to acknowledge the fact that that um that this is a standardized test score and there's more to you than your score and i just want to just really iterate that there are 63 awardees for the high school there are 262 members of the senior class and so those of your colleagues that aren't here also have like wonderful talents and so i just
023hope that sort of in your head that you are aware and and of the beauty of of a heterogeneous uh school community and that you're able to sort of see that that there's a range of talents and abilities um and that you have the ability to collaborate with people who have all kinds of skills and abilities um as you now in high school and when you head off to uh to college or to whatever you're doing as i say in your in your life after a rhs and so really quickly i want to just read you a little poem um that that i i i don't know it just sort of conveys my thinking around that and it's quick i promise um it's called to be of use the people that i love the best
024jump into work head first without dallying in the shadows and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight they seem to become natives of that element the black sleek heads of seals bouncing like half submerged balls i love people who harness themselves to an ah and harness themselves and ox to a heavy cart who pull like water buffalo with massive patients who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward who do what has to be done again and again i want to be with people who submerge in the task who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire must be
025put out the work of the world is common as mud botched it smears the hands crumbles to dust but the thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies clean and evident greek amorphous for wine or oil hopi vases that held corn are put in museums but you know they were made to be used the pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real so that's a poem to be of use by marge percy it was actually uh written in the year that i graduated from high school and i'll just say 1982. uh so uh that uh i just hope for you that you find ways to be of use that you find ways to best be as used as you continue to move um towards your life after
026a rhs that's that's my wish for you all right i'm going to put all of us on this up on the screen and and answer any questions that people might have for us and so you can write your questions in the chat let's see oh okay he's not letting me i guess you guys can unmute yourselves maybe it's not letting me unmute you i'm unmuted okay okay great all right great so um i'll if you write your questions those of you that are and attending um your uh your uh questions we will uh answer them this is definitely different than zoom yeah i know it's a there's a learning curve do you see the participants no i can't see i can't see i thought you heard a list of everybody yeah yeah i it's it's
027so it is definitely different it does allow you to have a recording which zoom probably does too um yeah i can't figure that out though yeah you know harold you're right it's very it is very it's funny how you get used to one platform and so when you're thrown into another one it's like okay this is where that is and yeah i was wondering those things too like where's the chat it's right in front of me so any questions from awardees their parents let's see uh all right someone's saying they don't have a question oh okay let's see here comes one um ah could i please give a brief history and the purpose of this scholarship who funds it who awards it laura you win the prize laura sorry i'm still here okay so you
028briefly touched on it is the history behind it is i can't tell you specifically but it is people do well on their own pass awards um i can tell you it's the massachusetts financial assist who awarded the students you'll receive your letter though from the mass department of higher education and it's been around for quite a long time i mean i i've used it over are you over like eight ten years whoops we lost you i think we lost you a little bit laura i don't know mike if you can you can add in i think laura froze yeah um i i will admit just being a little newer to umass and massachusetts i'm not fully versed on the the again the history or the purpose of the history of the scholarship i would just
029say again like most scholarship awards and if harold you have anything to add here a lot of it is that you know every little bit to help kind of curb the cost and i think that this is one of those things to acknowledge something that you've all done to say here's a slight reduction on top of some other ways to to reduce that cost and again so it never hurts to kind of tie it in the states love tying it into history and so john everyone knows john and abigail adams and so i think that what they embody what they contributed is part of that um but i would say yeah it's just you know that acknowledgement from the public universities in the state that kind of collaborating with the the state itself to help
030curb that cost and acknowledge your success and your accomplishment and say not only is it nice to acknowledge it but give you a little bit of a reduction in the cost of a public education in college so that's a little bit of what i know um based on my limited time um so i wish i i knew more from my uh experience again i i learned about it through my niece who graduated amherst high school with the abigail adams scholar uh going on nine years ago now um and from my point i thought it was always an award that was given to those who excelled in the obviously the mcas and abigail adams and john uh decided that would be a nice way to reward those uh high achieving students that did well in 10th
031grade um so other than that that's you know at hcc we award yet 720 versus 30 credits at hcc and and again every little bit helps all right here's our next question um could you do a gap year and hold on to the award absolutely and um the scholarship semester it's not consec semester you just need to within six years of graduating high school so you can take a couple of years if you want to but it's available to take a gap all right cool and then here's another question um uh if we are going to an out-of-state college are there any opportunities to receive some of this money um and if not are there other resources i'm through the i would say through the department of education that we can take advantage of this
032is specific not yeah this is not a transfer over state loans um there are some other approach you should share on them the chooses facilitated website um that are able to refer different institutions unfortunately this meet the miguel adams ship state and the massive public institutions yeah it was more of an encouragement to stay within the state system too to keep our students within the state system it's kind of an incentive too here i'm going to put a link to the the main page for all all the different scholarship um that from the mass department of education um let's see my favorite one yeah i bet it is i like it too i really do they it does have the tuition it combines the tuitions um so it's hard to sort of pull up tease
033out what the actual tuition is um but that's a great conversation to uh have within a financial aid office is just to be clear um so connor has a question um you gave different amounts for money for the different umass institutions what is the scholarship amount for the maritime academy um so i actually just pulled this up um a great website that i hope is being linked to but the massachusetts maritime academy um i can't this is the air award but it was 1 554 a year okay yeah and it's all connected to what the overall tuition is as well yes awesome questions thanks for participating awardees any other questions from people or things um presenters that maybe we we missed out on miss saying that you wish you said or otherwise i'm gonna let
034people go play in the snow now that my back you guys know my i was on my back for 11 weeks i'm so excited i did promise i wouldn't shovel which was not hard to do i will not shovel ever again in my life um but i think the worst way to go back [Laughter] nice nice walk in the snow yeah yeah sledding is probably risky too huh well i i i do want to thank our presenters for for joining us today um uh and uh the names of the recipients yes i do have it it's mostly because i'm afraid of this platform hang on one sec i will share my screen with you uh great question you called me on it you're keeping me honest who's that mike sometimes i need it so here
035are here are the 63 awardees here um and uh and you you should have gotten a uh a letter in the mail that you had with letter and the institutions that it uh applies to and so congratulations to all of you um thanks for taking time out of your day the sun is setting we're closing in on the shortest day of the year um so that can only mean it's about to get cold out there but it's it looks really beautiful um and so congratulations to all of you and thank you make it larger please that's not gonna happen i'll just be honest with you i know darlings are there um but we will we um you're you're all awesome just know in your heart you're awesome even if you can't see your name all
036right have an awesome afternoon everyone um thanks again to our presenters and congratulations um to those of you um that that are here and did receive the award and there's more scholarship search to come um so keep an eye on those emails that i send because i'm i'm just gonna keep sending them to you um thanks again and have a great great afternoon deidra yes i want to talk to you okay all right let's see i don't see how i do this right in the broadcast