Winners of the 2020 Saranac Lake Voluntary Health Association New Visions scholarships are William Camden Reiley, Sandra Kwasniak, Claire Denis, Mecalyn Sousa, Robyn Rutgers, Shannon Bentley, Van Ledger and Nick Kelting. (Photo provided)

SARANAC LAKE — The Saranac Lake Voluntary Health Association would like to congratulation the 2020 New Visions scholarship winners. The SLVHA continues its quest to promote and maintain healthcare professions in the North Country by providing $1,000 scholarships to each of this year’s Adirondack Medical Center (AMC) New Visions students.

The eight scholarship winners are:

• Nick Kelting, Eastern University

• William Camden Reiley, Stony Brook University

• Robyn Rutgers, Stony Brook University and Mecalyn Sousa, SUNY Oneonta, from Saranac Lake High School

• Claire Denis, SUNY Plattsburgh and Sandra Kwasniak, SUNY Oswego, from Tupper Lake High School

• Shannon Bentley. Russell Sage and Van Ledger, Montana State University, from Lake Placid High School.

“The members of the Saranac Lake Voluntary Health Association would like to congratulate this year’s New Visions graduates,” said president Wayne Newman. ” We felt that all eight New Visions students provided such strong applications that it was too difficult to choose between them. We decided to award eight individual $1,000 scholarships. The Saranac Lake Voluntary Health Association hopes that these scholarships will help as each student approaches their next educational journey.”

The New Visions Health program is facilitated through the Adirondack Educational Center and the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services of New York. High school seniors have the opportunity to gain experience while confirming interest in a chosen field.

The college preparatory curriculum is only open to seniors and they have to apply to be accepted. Instructed by Alison Riley-Clark, MSN, RN, the New Visions students participate in clinical observation at AMC while earning high school and college credits during the year-long program.

The scholarships were offered to all high school seniors enrolled in the New Visions program at AMC and part of the Lake Placid, Long Lake, Saranac Lake, and Tupper Lake school districts. Students must submit the required information sheet, an essay describing his/her academic goals and field of study, and two letters of recommendation.

“I’m really thankful for the scholarship,” said 2020 Saranac Lake graduate Robyn Rutgers. “It was an easy application and I had fun doing it. I’m going to Stony Brook to major in the Health Sciences and hopefully on the Pre-med track. This scholarship will definitely take off some of the financial stress plus there were no restrictions on how I can use the money whether for room, board, or books. It is very generous. It didn’t take much time to apply and it was worth the effort.”

The Saranac Lake Voluntary Health Association, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization established in 1897 and is dedicated to improving the health of the people within the Saranac Lake area through funding healthcare initiatives and scholarships for students in the medical, nursing, rehabilitative and allied fields of study.