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Virginia Smiles Honors Maria Summers with College Scholarship
Randolph Macon Student Awarded Virginia Smiles College Scholarship
FAIRFAX, VA--The members of the Board of Directors of Virginia Smiles are proud to announce that Maria Summers, who is beginning her second year at Randolph Macon College, has earned the 2007 Virginia Smiles College Scholarship. Summers will receive the $1,000 award at the 2007 Virginia Smiles Family Picnic, to be held at Nottoway Park on July 8.
Each year, Virginia Smiles awards a $1,000 college scholarship to a Virginia student who was born with a cleft lip or cleft palate, and provides a message of hope and encouragement to other families of children born with a cleft.
Summers was born with a complete bilateral cleft lip and palate, and is seen by the craniofacial team at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., under the direction of Chief Plastic Surgeon Michael Boyajian, M.D. Summers is studying to become a pediatrician and serves on the Operation Smile College Association at Randolph Macon.
As part of the requirements for the scholarship, Summers completed a 500 word essay describing why she deserved to be awarded the Virginia Smiles College Scholarship. “I am no more important than anyone else, but neither am I less just because of my differences,” Summers wrote in her essay. “My hope is that I can convey love and support to the children facing struggles that I myself have faced.”
Summers will receive the award, and give a ten-minute talk to families of children born with cleft lip and/or cleft palate, and other guests, that will highlight the accomplishments of her life and how she overcame the challenges of being born with a cleft lip/cleft palate.
Virginia Smiles is a non-profit organization, founded in 2002, that provides an essential link between families of children who were born with a cleft lip and/or cleft palate and the provider community that serves these children. Virginia Smiles provides education, information, and emotional support to families of children who were born with a cleft lip and/or cleft palate, and serves as a resource to providers in the medical community who treat those who were born with a cleft.
Previous Virginia Smiles Scholarship Recipients:
2024: McKenna and Tess Cathey of Charlottesville, VA
2023: Rose Perkins from Abingdon, VA
2022: Benjamin Ray Rogers from Verona, VA
2021: Grace Hopkins Davenport from Midlothian, VA
2020: Lia Peach
2019: Jenna Lambert
2018: Jessica Elise Miller from King George, VA
2017: No award
2016: Curtis Bishop, George Mason University
2015: Kulie Nabers, Asbury University
2014: David Rieth, University of Mary Washington
2013: Michael Cox Jr, James Madison University and Anna Grishaw, Sewanee University
2012: Sam Rosen, Bowling Green state University
2011: John Mahaney, Shenandoah University
2010: No award
2009: Josh Duncan, Virginia Community College Transfer Program
2008: Kyle Speers, Eastern Mennonite University
2007: Maria Summers, Randolph Macon College
2006: Steven Richard Day, Virginia Polytech Institute
2005: Katie Higgins, Blue Ridge Community College Transfer Program
To support Virginia Smiles Scholarship please make a donation.
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