The Julian Augustus Taylor Scholarship fund was established in 1981, and is given each year to the highest achieving African-American student or students at Ansonia High School who are accepted to an accredited four year college or university.
The 29th annual awards ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, July 10 at John J. Sullivan’s Restaurant at 557 Wakelee Ave.
Julian Taylor was a pastor at Ansonia’s Macedonia Baptist Church for 42 years and was a scholar, civil rights leader and community activist.
Below are Q & A interviews conducted with two of the three winners of the Julian A. Taylor Memorial Scholarship. The third recipient, Miolgens Almezy — who graduated in the top 20 percent of his class and plans to major in engineering at UConn — could not be reached.
Scroll down to see a list of this year’s J.A.T Scholars.
TYSHAUN CABEZUDO
College in the fall: Sacred Heart University
Major: Criminal Justice
Interests: Basketball (he’ll be playing for Sacred Heart), video games
Valley Independent Sentinel: What are your plans for the future?
Cabezudo: “I want to become a lawyer. In sophomore year when I didn’t know what I wanted to do, my friend’s father was a lawyer. He told me about his job and how things went, and it sounded interesting. So I started looking at schools with a good pre-law system. And I saw that Sacred Heart had a really good system. I live in Ansonia, so it’s not that far from home.”
VIS: Do you have any plans for this summer?
Cabezudo: “I’m doing a lot of things with the family. Two days before my move-in day I’m coming back from a five day cruise from New Jersey to Bermuda. I’ve never left the United States before. Next week we’re going to Six Flags, having a lot of cookouts, just getting ready for the upcoming school year.”
VIS: What is your single greatest memory from your time at Ansonia High?
Cabezudo: “I would have to say the friends and the laughs. Every single day we had a great laugh about something that was completely different from the the day before. Everybody was friendly, everybody got along perfectly fine. There was no was no individual groups of people. I got along with everybody. I made a lot of good friends. Everybody backed me up on everything I wanted to do.”
VIS: Who was your favorite teacher?
Cabezudo: “Corri Davis, one of my math teachers. She helped me with everything since sophomore year, and we’re still cool to this day. I first had her for Algebra 2 honors, and then she helped me a lot after that too. I had been a real good math student up until ninth grade, and that’s when it started getting harder and harder for me, and she helped me a lot. Even though in my senior year I didn’t have her for a teacher, I would always go back to her for help in math or other classes I needed help in, or for problems at home I would talk to her. So she really became a school-mother figure for me.”
VIS: Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Cabezudo: “I see myself as a lawyer in ten years, but not an established lawyer. Because, as you know, it takes seven or eight years to get out. But I really see myself there in ten years, just getting into the actual business, searching for my first case. I’m back and forth on what kind of law, but I’m leaning towards being a (defense lawyer).”
RAQUEL PRESCOTT
College in the fall: Sacred Heart University
Major: Biology, pre-med
Interests: Art, Modeling
VIS: What’s your single greatest memory of your time at Ansonia High?
Prescott: “Senior Prom, because everyone was so elegant and dressed up. All the girls went out of their way to look pretty, and the guys looked very put together. It was really nice because you don’t see people everyday go out of their way to look so nice. It’s like, ‘Wow we’re all adults here,’ sitting here talking and having dinner like young adults.”
VIS: What’s it like to be done with high school?
Prescott: “It feels great!”
VIS: Do you have any plans for the summer?
Prescott: “I’m just soaking it all in, just hanging out, going to the movies a lot. Enjoying my last summer as a kid …”
VIS: Who was your favorite teacher at Ansonia High?
Prescott: “I had many favorite teachers, actually. My AP English teacher, Mr. Hashemian, liked to include everyone in the discussion topics. We would sit in a circle, literally, and discuss a novel or piece of literature we had read. It would be so deep and I wouldn’t have thought about certain things until it was brought up in a conversation in class. He made us think above and beyond.”
VIS: Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Prescott: “I would like to see myself as a surgeon in ten years. I have a really deep interest in surgery and I would love to be a cosmetic surgeon one day.”
THE 2011 J.A.T. SCHOLARS
Grade 11 Stephanie Duncan
Grade 10 Tobechukwu Umeugo
Grade 9 Davon Champen
Grade 8 Jayden Tinney
Grade 8 Dahlia Delahaye
Grade 7 Kayla Duncan
Grade 7 Christon Stewart
Grade 6 Jahia Owens
Grade 6 Shamir Hughes
Grade 6 Maya Yorke
Grade 6 Davina Robinson
Grade 5 Kevin Rascoe
Grade 5 Shaqueline Rubie
Grade 5 Tamarrah Haynes
Grade 5 Alesica Andrade
Grade 4 Gracen Kerr
Grade 4 Jacklyn Finney
Grade 4 Noah Winley
Grade 4 Ludmia Joseph
Grade 3 Sedea Hatton
Grade 3 Marnielle Charles
Grade 3 Mikayla Simon
Grade 3 Maliqa Mosley-Williams
