NHS Graduate Earns Middle Gate Scholarship

By Eliza Hallabeck

 At a ceremony at Middle Gate School this past Thursday, June 12, Jennifer Tichon, a graduate from Newtown High School this year, accepted her $1,500 scholarship from the Parents and Teachers Association at the school.

She said the scholarship involved writing an essay and applying.

After the ceremony Jennifer said she was happy to be given the scholarship. She will be putting the money toward her tuition at Springfield College in Springfield, Mass.

“For as long as I can remember,” Jennifer said, “I just wanted to be a doctor.” 

Jennifer has been a Girl Scout since kindergarten and practicing ballet since she was 3 years old. She said she was president of the Newtown High School Health Careers Club, a member of the National Honor Society, and a member of the school’s Blue & Gold Marching Band.

“I hope to help people, and maybe make an impact on their lives,” she said. The doctors who treated her when she was younger and throughout her life, she said, made a strong impression on her.

She said she plans to become a pediatrician. “I’ve always enjoyed being around little kids,” said Jennifer.

She said she knows one memory from elementary school has helped in her life. Her fifth grade teacher hung a class motto on the classroom board, and she still remembers it to this day. “It was ‘reach for the moon, because even if you miss you will land among the stars’ from Les Brown,” said Jennifer. She used this quote as her quote in the year book this year for Newtown High School.

She does not yet have a plan for what she will do after college, but she said she plans to continue ballet dancing while at Springfield College.