2022-2023 Scholarship Winners

AMG received more than 200 applicants to this year’s scholarship program. Our scholarship applicants reflect the diversity of our client communities and the Carolina’s in general. The essays also reflected the care our local young adults have for their communities. We are so proud of all of the applicants!

*All scholarships are 100% funded by the owners of AMG, not community association fees or assessments.*

PLEASE SEE A VIDEO MESSAGE FROM AMG VICE PRESIDENT, MAY GAYLE MENGERT ANNOUNCING THE 2022/2023 SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS

When I think of community, I envision a puzzle. One piece of a puzzle on its own is just a fraction of what it could be if it had the others with it. I was once that lone puzzle piece. A little girl that had just moved to a new school, about to begin Kindergarten, had not yet found the other pieces to her puzzle. After moving from my old school to a new one, I felt as though I had lost the community I had built at my old school. I had to start all over again. I was going to be the shy and nervous new kid on the block, and I had no idea how to start rebuilding my community. As I walked into my classroom, I had no idea that I would be meeting people that would consider me to be a part of their community, a piece in their puzzle of life. I met people who showed me so much kindness and love that I felt like I was part of a home. I found a piece of my puzzle that came to my birthday parties when no one else did. I found a piece that introduced me to their family and provided me and my single parent aid when she had knee surgery. Slowly, as I was introduced to more pieces, I began to see my puzzle come together. It was filled with pieces that made me smile, laugh, and helped me flourish. Once I grew older, I decided to move back to my old school district. I expected the community I started there to have long forgotten me, but I was mistaken. I still fit back into that puzzle I had created when I was in K4. Sure, we may have grown up and changed, but the love the community had for me never diminished. That is the thing about a puzzle piece. It may get lost, changed, or damaged, but either way that piece is still known to belong to that puzzle, no matter how long it is gone. Also, to my surprise, I realized that the two communities I had built never forgot about me. Though they were in two separate places, built-in two distinct periods in my life, I realized that I was accepted in both. No matter what age I was or how my life shifted, I still had a home within both communities. Community is a strong word. It gives the connotation of togetherness, home, warmth, and love. In my mind, a community is a place where you are accepted. Where people love and care for you no matter what condition you are in. Yes, you may go missing for a while, but in a good community that genuinely cares for you, you will fit right back in as if you never left. When I reflect on community, I think of a puzzle. The places where I feel safe and where I feel as though I fit in exactly right, just like a puzzle piece.

As an 18-year-old black male diagnosed with Asperger’s, discovering a sense of community has been a challenge for me. I have always enjoyed my own company, but I have also sought out the sense of belonging that we all seek. As someone who struggles with social anxiety, finding a niche and group of people with similar identities has been difficult. This past year, as a senior in high school, I decided to try something I’d never considered before: playing a sport. I never considered myself particularly athletic and sports had never appealed to me. Yet, I found myself in October 2021 pushing myself to jog every single day, setting new goals and benchmarks each day. In November, I found myself standing in my high school gym, awaiting my very first wrestling practice. Over the subsequent months, I noticed many drastic changes in myself. First, I became healthier. My exercising increased, my eating habits improved, and even my sleep patterns became healthy. But most of all, I found a sense of belonging and community that had eluded me through my K-12 years. At wrestling practices, I made friends, mentors, mentees, and partners. At wrestling matches, I found challengers, competitors, and supporters. My newfound passion for wrestling gave me the necessary drive to complete my high school education in high spirits, with a 3.6 cumulative GPA. The value of community was best summed up by the late Coretta Scott King who said, “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” In my high school wrestling community, we helped each other, taught each other, coached each other, and supported each other. This experience helped me cement values that I will always hold dear and invaluable.

I feel like when some people hear the word community seven out of ten of us will think of a standard neighborhood with residents who live in houses. Which in a literal sense can be interpreted as true, but to me there is a much deeper and broad context around the use of that term that sometimes we tend to not comprehend as much. A community can be two, three, four, or more working together to build and manifest a welcoming environment for everyone. We want to disregard the ideal of ethnocentrism and make a respectful relationship. In that sense, welcoming all diverse cultures of race, religion, and gender. It is about bringing tranquility and happiness to everyone and everything around you. Always making an effort to learn about the culture of another person is a sign of respect. All people belong to multiple cultures that influence their beliefs and behaviors to varying degrees. People learn culture directly and indirectly from other members of their community. As you grow up in a culture, you are taught by the community members who you are and how best to function in that culture. This is how we make the establishment of building relationships and are effectively able to work well with our counterparts or rather others who are different from you. You should not really defy what a community is based on how many people there are or how many houses. There is no purpose in that, because we would just be looking at what is in black and white. Where some of us tend to go wrong is when we do not get proactive in areas we should be and by doing that we are letting the light in a community die out. Staying antisocial or reserved to ourselves which at times can be a flaw unless we choose to act in order to make a community flourish. I am a current student at Appalachian State University and have spent almost 3 years studying in the mountains. During my time there, I have been exposed to the community of Boone and my experience there is outstanding. Whenever I walk on the sidewalks, people are so friendly to the point where if you smile then they will smile back. You can drive past by someone in your vehicle and wave and they will wave back. Walk into a store and the employees will greet you with such politeness and respect. In my freshman year, I volunteered at F.A.R.M Cafe which is a local non-profit organization on Kings Street. Their mission is to help starving residents, families, or anyone that do not have enough money to feed for themselves. This organization made and cooked healthy lunches and dinners for these types of people. When I was there, I noticed how desperate some people were and how caring the volunteers were. We did not turn our backs on them. They came to us seeking help and we provided, because that is what a community is all about. Despite how different one was from another in accordance to their skin color, sexuality, or religion, the love we endure for our neighbors all around us is what matters at the end of every single day and what we always hope to achieve. Making a commitment of observing and learning about the culture of that person. Their beliefs and values. Helping and providing for one another to build up the community are the essentials everyone should always aim for. I believe encouraging friends and family to become more active within your neighborhood, county, and town is the right way to secure a beautiful community.

TIFFANY SOLIBEN

Winner of the Corey Flynt Scholarship

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” -Coretta Scott King My mom’s phone rang at 1:30am on Saturday February 26, 2022 and all I could hear was fear, horror, and sadness in her voice. Her tears flooded the room. On the other end of the call was my grandma who lives in Southern Ukraine. My mom’s childhood town was being bombed by Russian Forces and there was nothing we could do to help. Nevertheless, what came about in the hours and days that followed was simply amazing and gave me a true sense of what a “community” is. As word spread that my mom’s parents were impacted by the horrific war in Ukraine, our community in Aiken, South Carolina wrapped its arms around my family. Phone calls of support came pouring in from family and friends from all over the country. Donations of assistance came from anonymous people. Our church family embraced us with limitless prayers and solidarity. Coworkers, high school students, community leaders, local businesses, and elected officials wrapped their arms around my family throughout this stressful season. And trust me, all of this community support helped bring a sense of healing, hope, and calmness to our family and also to our relatives in Ukraine. It also gave me great hope that deep inside the soul of our communities there are olive branches of love that are deeply rooted. Where neighbors will drop everything from their hectic lives to offer help. Where prayers are sent to help miracles occur. Where flags of support appear on the rear windows of cars. This is community. And miraculously, on Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022 a miracle did occur. My grandparents were able to escape Ukraine and fly to the United States to be with us. They are now safe. They are loved. They are embraced. By my community. Thank You.

Scholarships to Honor Community Members

These scholarships awarded this year honor the memory of four individuals who made a difference in the lives of others:

Corey Flynt Scholarship

Corey was the son of AMG’s President, Dacy Cavicchia, and brother of Danielle Rudisill (AMG Charlotte Director of Operations) and Cassie Kutay (AMG Special Projects Coordinator). Corey tragically passed away in an automobile accident in 2017. He attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, was loved by many, and, cared passionately for his family.

Meet The Scholarship Committee

To view the 2021-2022 winners, please visit amgworld.com/2021scholarships