Commitment to Kids 2020
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- Special School District of St. Louis County
- 2020 Scholarship Recipients
Allison M. Haake Memorial Scholarship
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Established in 2008, the Allison M. Haake Memorial Scholarship is awarded to a deserving SSD student who has an interest in working with children.
The scholarship was established in memory of Allison Marie Haake, a former SSD teacher assistant. Allison was an inspirational teacher who, at an early age, knew she wanted to make a career of working with children.
Ethan Wood
Ethan Wood, the 2020 recipient of the Allison M. Haake Memorial Scholarship and a student at Parkway West High School, has spent much of his life helping and working with children. Even as a child, he would join his mother at hospitals where she worked as an art therapist. There, he and his sister would play with children who were fighting cancer.
More recently, however, Ethan began volunteering at Camp Rainbow. It’s an overnight week-long camp for children with cancer. He found the experience profoundly meaningful, and was paired with two campers. Ethan showed he was more than up to the challenge, showing encouragement to campers and making sure everyone was included.
Ethan is also a successful student in the classroom. Despite multiple learning disabilities, he’s worked extremely hard to learn strategies to help him learn. He’s also a standout athlete, competing in racquetball at the national level, as well as tennis at his school. Further, he has volunteered his time with organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Best Buddies, We Dine Together, Restorative Circle Training, Open Door Animal Sanctuary and Friends of Kids with Cancer.
Ethan plans to attend his dream school—the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and major in psychology.