By Clark Judge, KAA.
Haddam-Killingworth High-School graduates Olivia Herrmann and Victoria DeLuca are this year’s recipients of the Killingworth Ambulance Association scholarships.
The awards are granted annually to Killingworth residents who are graduating high-school seniors planning on continuing their educations at two-or-four-year schools and who maintained GPAs of 3.0 or higher, performed community service and intend to pursue careers in the medical, emergency services (fire, police, etc.) or other allied fields.
Herrmann and DeLuca checked all those boxes, with each intending to major in nursing … and no surprise there. Six of the past eight KAA scholarship recipients chose nursing as their fields of study.
“When picking my major,” said Herrmann, “I was deciding on nursing or biomedical engineering. I chose to pursue an education in nursing because I have a lot of close family members who were nurses, and that is something I wanted to emulate.”
DeLuca said she hopes to become a registered nurse before returning to school to pursue a doctorate in nursing.
“Becoming a nurse is the most rewarding job I can think of,” she said. “Whenever I was sick as a child and had to go to the hospital I always remembered how compassionate the nurses were to me with whatever I needed.”
Here’s a quick look at this year’s winners:
OLIVIA HERRMANN – Ranked eighth in the HKHS senior class, Herrmann was a member of the school’s field hockey and lacrosse teams. Among her 51 hours of community service, she volunteered for the annual Hartford Kids’ Holiday Service, served as a coach for the HK Youth Lacrosse Girls’ Instructional team and was a referee for the youth lacrosse program. She will attend Clemson University and said she hopes to continue her education by gaining a graduate degree in nursing.
VICTORIA DeLUCA – She completed 175 hours of community service, including roles as a four-year brand ambassador for the high school and student teacher at the Dance Corner in Killingworth for four years. DeLuca will attend Southern Connecticut State University and hopes to focus her studies on pediatrics. “As long as I am helping people,” she said, “that’s all that matters.”
Herrmann and DeLuca continue a run of young women as KAA scholarship recipients. Over the past two years, the KAA has awarded eight scholarships — including six last year — and all have been to females.
Photo of Olivia provided by her parents.
