Press release/provided photos
Four GLOW area seniors have been named recipients of Arc GLOW’s 2024 Mary Anne Graney Memorial Scholarship.
The $1,000 scholarship award winners — Katrelle Grover, Emma Millar, Claire Zehler, and Corina Dunn — are planning to pursue careers related to healthcare or working with people with disabilities.
Katrelle Grover, a Warsaw Central School senior from Silver Springs, plans to go to SUNY Fredonia for early childhood special education.
She became interested in working with children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) after becoming part of Best Buddies, which she joined in the ninth grade.
Best Buddies is an international non-profit organization that provides one-to-one friendships, leadership opportunities, employment options and housing for people with IDD. She wanted to be part of Best Buddies ever since seeing her brother’s close friendship with a boy with IDD.
“I did not realize until (until this young man) came into my brother’s life that someone with a disability can change your day and even life in a matter of minutes,” she said.
Now a senior and president of the club, Grover traveled to Indianapolis for the Best Buddies Leadership Conference where she learned how much more she wanted to do for herself and people with IDD.
Outside of Best Buddies, Grover also keeps busy in school with soccer, student council, drama club and photo club. She volunteers at St. Michael’s Church, the Hope Foundation, Terry Fyke’s Main Street Players and helped with Kid’s Days at Artisan Villa.
Emma Millar, a Caledonia-Mumford High School senior from Caledonia, will be going to SUNY Genesee Community College (GCC). She aims to obtain her associates degree in health studies before continuing her education in the physical therapist’s assistant program.
Millar has experience with individuals with IDD ever since she was young; her mother has been a speech therapist at KidStart for 30 years, which developed a passion for Millar to make people with disabilities lives easier.
“It pains me when people look down on disabled people, thinking that they can’t live a normal life or do normal things,” she said. “They are capable; everyone deserves a chance.”
When doing a shadowing opportunity at KidStart, Millar had the opportunity to work with children and it opened her eyes to her future career needed to be in the same area.
Claire Zehler, an Attica High School senior from North Java, plans to go to SUNY GCC for nursing.
Zehler, like Grover, is a member of Best Buddies. The four Best Buddies events her school has every year are her favorite days of the whole year. She also attends Health Careers Academy, and especially enjoyed her placement in the New York State School for the Blind in Batavia.
“I really enjoy doing activities with kids around my age or some younger kids,” she said. “I think a lot of these students are treated differently, and sometimes it’s nice just to be like everyone else and enjoy the same activities. I like helping them feel more included.”
When not working on Sun-Ray Farms, Zehler has been a gardener for the Attica Future Farmers of America (FFA) and job shadowed at United Memorial Medical Center (UMMC) in Batavia. She also can be found as a volunteer at Agape Manor.
In school, Zehler is on the varsity swim and tennis teams, participates in the Wyoming Association of Catholic Youth, plays in band and chorus, and is also in 4-H, FFA, Together Including Every Student (TIES), student government, and National Honor Society.
Corina Dunn, a student at Le Roy Jr./Sr. High School hailing from Le Roy, plans to go to SUNY Geneseo for early childhood/special education.
“I have always wanted to be an early childhood teacher, but after working with other students who have disabilities through my high school career has made me realize I want to be dual certified in special education as well,” Dunn said. “I believe that the first years of a child’s life are the most important, and I want to ensure that children with disabilities are welcomed, accepted, and have the basic blocks to succeed in their futures.”
Dunn keeps busy inside and outside of school. Not only does she work as a cashier and customer service lead for Tops Friendly Markets, she’s the vice president of her school’s National Honor Society and volunteers for the Le Roy Youth Soccer Association. Dunn’s active in Le Roy’s music council, student council, marching band, jazz band, musical pit orchestra, math team, success, basketball, track and Unified Bowling.
Now in its 19th year, the Mary Anne Graney Memorial Scholarship is given out to area high school students planning to attend college to pursue a degree in human services, special education or a field related to helping people with developmental disabilities.
It is in honor of Mary Anne Graney, a special education teacher who died in 2004. The scholarship is funded by the Friends & Family 5K, scheduled this year for Sept. 16 in Elba. In all, 63 scholarships — including this year — have been awarded since 2006 to local high school students.