MANCHESTER, N.H. – Catholic Medical Center (CMC) and the Diocese of Manchester’s Catholic Schools Office are pleased to announce the 2021 recipients of the CMC Heart & Hands Scholarships. They are Kathryn Kieley, a rising 7th grader at St. Christopher Academy in Nashua, and Emma Service, a rising senior at Trinity High School in Manchester.
The CMC Heart & Hands Scholarship is presented annually to two students, one in middle school and one in high school, in New Hampshire’s Catholic Schools. The scholarship seeks to recognize students who are committed to the needs of others through leadership and service.
“These students have already made significant contributions to their communities,” said Catholic Medical Center President Alex Walker. “It is inspiring to see the works of students like Kathryn and Emma and the example of servant leadership they set for their peers.”
The Heart & Hands Scholarship application asked students to submit a resume of their service work and describe a community service project or program that they would like to implement.
Kathryn Kieley has been spearheading community service projects from a very young age, when she began setting up a lemonade stand to benefit St. Jude Children’s Hospital. She, often with the help of her sister, has been involved in a number of projects to encourage and uplift her neighbors and fellow parishioners. Her proposed service project would deliver free activity kits to K-8 remote learners. “I would deliver bags with activities for the week and ideas for fun things to do at home (hopscotch, blanket fort, etc.) to each child who signed up for it. With activities to keep them occupied, remote learners will reduce their screen time, and stop bothering their parents!”
Emma Service holds leadership roles in the National Charity League and the Kiwanis Key Club at Trinity. She is also involved as an after-school program volunteer and in Campus Ministry. She proposed to create an organization dedicated to visiting and helping elderly and mentally ill nursing home residents. “Although this may not be one of the most pressing problems in our flawed world, it is a very frequent issue that has a very easy fix, we don’t need millions of dollars and volunteers to make it happen.”
Catholic Medical Center (CMC) has a long-standing commitment to caring for the community, serving more than 180,000 patients each year under one mission: to carry out Christ’s healing ministry by offering health, healing and hope to every individual who seeks our care.
Similarly, Catholic schools promote service as an essential component of their curriculum. Many Catholic schools engage students of all ages in service programs. Catholic school students learn that community is at the heart of who we are: there are no strangers, only brothers and sisters in the Lord. Therefore, students have a responsibility to respond to the needs of others because we are all part of God’s family.
For more information about CMC’s community involvement, please visit: https://www.catholicmedicalcenter.org/care-and-treatment/community-health.
For more information about the CMC Heart & Hands Scholarships please visit: catholicnh.org/schools/visitors/scholarships.
