10 THE CHARBONNEAU VILLAGER July 2020
SEVEN STUDENTS RECEIVE
SCHOLARSHIPS FROM SPRINGRIDGE
By CLARA HOWELL
SpringRidge residents
donate more than
$12,000 toward this
year’s scholarship fund
Wilsonville High School
graduate Mathew
Labunsky is the youngest
in a family of 11.
And as a first generation college student,
he said the scholarship he received
from SpringRidge at Charbonneau
will help him pursue his
goal of becoming a nurse.
Mathew was one of seven high school
students to receive a scholarship from
the SpringRidge Scholarship Committee
— and one of 11 graduates who worked
in the facility’s dining services program
this year. Every year the scholarship
committee collects donations from residents
to award students who’ve worked
in dining services to benefit their higher
education goals.
“They take care of the servers and
workers really well there,” said
Mathew, who’s worked in dining services
since he was a sophomore. “It
means a lot to me. My parents are immigrants
from Ukraine so I’m a first
generation college student.”
SpringRidge usually hosts a graduation
ceremony with residents and
parents invited to attend. But due to
the health crisis, the 11 graduates who
worked in dining services gathered at
SpringRidge in masks June 2. The
event was recorded and shown via the
community’s in-house TV station the
following day.
As part of the reception, each scholarship
recipient was awarded funds
and there were a small handful of
speakers including the dining services
COURTESY PHOTOS
SpringRidge at Charbonneau held a graduation
ceremony June 2 for students who worked in
dining services.
Ed Dey, SpringRidge resident and chair of the
scholarship committee, speaks at the graduation
ceremony.
Wilsonville High School graduate Mathew
Labunsky with his parents Vladimir and Nina
Labunsky.
director and the executive director of
SpringRidge.
“The award for each of the seven is
going to be very meaningful in terms
of helping to finance their college education,”
said Ed Dey, SpringRidge resident
and chair of the scholarship
committee. “Under the circumstances
this year, the residents really came
through in terms of coming up with
the money they did to make it possible
for the scholarships.”
This year, despite the global financial
downfall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,
SpringRidge residents collectively
donated more than $12,000 toward the
scholarship fund. The scholarship committee
also used additional money from
the reserve fund to give all seven students
who applied for a scholarship
$2,000 toward their higher education. Including
this year’s scholarships,
$124,000 has been awarded to students
since the program began in 1998.
“It’s hard to describe the talent that
the seven kids have in terms of being
well-rounded,” said Ed. “They just are
a very goal-oriented group of kids.”
Ed added that students submit an
extensive application and the scholarship
committee takes the applications
into account as well as evaluations
from the applicants’ high school teachers
before conducting individual interviews.
The dining services director also
evaluates the students’ work in the
dining room.
“My committee individually interviews
each of the applicants regarding
their community activities, their
school activities, athletics and, of
course, (we) talk about grades,” Ed
said. “We also talk to them about their
plans to finance their college education
so those interviews are pretty
comprehensive.”
The scholarship committee then
ranks the applicants and this year, especially
with the influx in donations,
decided all were eligible.
The students who received scholarships
hailed from Wilsonville, North
Marion and Canby high schools.
In addition, each graduate — there
were 11 students total, though four
are not scholarship recipients — received
$600 “as a thank you from the
residents,” Ed said.
Mathew, who worked at Spring-
Ridge while attending school and being
a student athlete, said he will be
attending Portland Community College
in the fall to work toward a bachelor’s
degree in nursing. He plans to
be a registered nurse anesthetist.
Labunksy played football throughout
high school as well as lacrosse and
snowboarding. Though he wasn’t involved
with many community clubs, he
did graduate with a 3.9 GPA.
“It’s like a full-time job almost to be
an athlete at Wilsonville,” he said. “I’m
ready to move on. It’s almost like a release
of stress.”
Mathew said one of his older sisters
is a registered nurse and helped him
decide his career path. He said he was
also motivated by his parents.
“They kinda beat the odds,” Mathew
said. “I have an obligation to go and do
well for myself.”
Scholarship recipients
ADaniel Vera
ASarah Link
AIsaiah Yip
AMatt Labunsky
ASamaria Morfin
ALuke Tamimi
ANathan Sansone