Ansonia’s Taylor Scholars Honored

More than just money for education will come to this year’s Julian A. Taylor scholars provided they stay on a good path inside and outside of the classroom.

That was the message on Sunday from Kyle Anderson Sr., a liquor control officer with the state Department of Consumer Protection, as he addressed the audience at the annual Julian A. Taylor Fund dinner at John J. Sullivan’s.

Anderson encouraged the 23 scholarship winners, all high-achieving black students in Ansonia schools, to continue with their solid academic performances, to thank their parents and teachers — and to spread the message that it’s just fine to be scholarly.

It’s cool to be a scholar in 2010,” Anderson said.

Anderson told the students that more opportunities await as long as they continue with their education and stay out of trouble. Good grades can mean access to more scholarship dollars, which leads to more financial opportunities, he said.

Go further than what you did this year. Do better, do more, accept more and be greater than you were before,” he said.

Bianca Bancroft, 17, won the committee’s $5,000 scholarship, given annually to the highest-ranked African-American graduating senior from Ansonia High School. The senior award is the eight JAT scholarship she’s won in her pre-college years.

Bancroft said the scholarship will be important in helping her pay the tuition at Pennsylvania State University, where she will be in the fall to study architecture.

I think the award is wonderful because it gives kids a goal to work toward,” she said. It gave me a reason to maintain my grades because I knew there was something waiting for me.”

Bancroft is not feeling the nerves about college just yet. But she knows she’ll be a little unnerved once she heads to State College, Pa. next month.

I have to say I’m more excited (about college) now, but I know I’m going to be nervous when I get there and I’m away from my parents,” she said.

The winners in grades 3 to 11 received smaller scholarships. All the winners in attendance thanked the committee for the honor in short speeches.

The JAT Committee has handed out scholarships to students for 28 years.

Click here for a full list of winners.

The Julian A. Taylor Scholarship Committee was formed by Taylor’s widow with the aid of friends and members of Macedonia Baptist Church after Dr. Taylor’s death in 1981.

Taylor, of Ansonia, was born in North Carolina and educated at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and Columbia in New York City, served the Macedonia Church and Ansonia Community for 40 years (1939 – 1980), according to information from Lily Douglas, a member of the scholarship committee.

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