2020 Scholarship Recipients

Thanks to the COVID-19 crisis, the high school Awards Night celebrations for graduating seniors in Fairfield were not held and we did not have the opportunity to meet and present the Emma Jane von Euler Music Scholarship to this year's recipients. I felt conflicted about that. This week is an emotionally exhausting week even without the scholarship presentation. I was a tad relieved not to have to live through the experience of waiting our turn to speak, watching the reaction of the audience as we talk about a subject many think is taboo, and then heading directly over to Fairfield's second high school to do it all over again. Nonetheless, I can't help feeling like I have forgotten to do something - that my grieving process will be even more unresolved this year.

The scholarship committee of the High School Scholarship Foundation did give us the opportunity to write a letter to our two recipients, which I am sharing with you here with congratulations to our two winners: Harry Graney-Green of Fairfield Warde High School and Maxwell Ephron of Fairfield Ludlowe High School

Dear Harry and Max,

Congratulations on receiving the Emma Jane von Euler Music Scholarship. You have worked really hard and accomplished so much.  We are very happy to be able to support you as you head off to college.

The Emma Jane von Euler Music Scholarship was established in memory of our beautiful daughter who took her life in June of her junior year in high school. Emma was kind and gentle, a strong student and a gifted musician. No one who knew Emma realized how intensely she was struggling. She hid it well.

That’s why when we present the scholarship each year we talk to the graduates about mental health and suicide. We encourage them to take their mental health as seriously as they take their physical health and to understand that there is no shame in seeking help for mental and emotional challenges.

We think this message is especially important this year. You have all had a very different ending to your senior year than you had hoped for. Isolation has been tough on all of us and we have all experienced periods of grief, sadness, loneliness and anxiety as we survived these last 3 months of quarantine. It’s important that we are all able to reach out for help and support when we need it. As you head off to college, make sure you know where to get help before you or a friend needs it. Put the crisis hotline and text line numbers into your phone, and find out where the health center and the counseling center are. Find friends who listen and care and be that kind of friend. Know that you have strength to overcome obstacles. You did it this spring!

You have much to be proud of. You have been resilient and accomplished your goals in the face of a historic crisis. We wish you continued resilience and success as you head off to college. Congratulations and be well!

Sincerely,

The von Euler Family