The newest recipient of a Dyckman Institute Scholarship to attend Columbia University is first-year Columbia Engineering student Karina Montenegro. She joins current Dyckman Scholars Aury Garcia, a sophomore, Jason Tejada, a junior, and Christopher Davidson, a senior.
The Dyckman Scholars will be recognized for their academic achievements by Manhattan’s Community Board 12 during its monthly meeting on Tuesday, November 22. The meeting will take place at the Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center, Myrna Daniels Auditorium, 173 Ft. Washington Avenue at 7:00 p.m.; the students will be recognized at 8:00 p.m.
Each year, the Dyckman Institute provides financial support to four outstanding undergraduate students who live in the Upper Manhattan neighborhoods of Washington Heights and Inwood. From this and other sources, approximately 21 students from these neighborhoods are currently benefiting from more than $680,000 in need-based scholarships to attend Columbia College or Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.
“We are very happy that a Columbia Engineering student has been awarded a Dyckman Institute Scholarship,” said Feniosky Peña-Mora, Dean of Columbia’s Fu Foundation School for Engineering and Applied Science. “Karina Montenegro, who is the first engineering student to win this honor, has grown up in a neighborhood that I know well. I am so pleased to be able to recognize the achievement of such a deserving young woman who is also a promising engineer!”
The Dyckman Institute Scholarship is one of 300 individual need-based scholarships available to Columbia students, this program’s origins can be traced to founding father Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton’s widow, Eliza, donated the building and land for the Hamilton Free School—the first school in Washington Heights — in 1818. In 1860, the school became the Dyckman Library, the first free public library in Upper Manhattan. In the early 1920’s the library became the Dyckman Institute, which operated both a museum devoted to local archaeology in Inwood Hill Park and a publishing house. In 1943, the trustees of the institute decided to dissolve it and to establish a scholarship fund at Columbia for students from Washington Heights and Inwood.
“We are delighted to recognize these talented students,” said Kevin Shollenberger, dean of student affairs. “Columbia has long been committed to meeting 100 percent of the demonstrated financial need of every admitted first year student for all four years. Additionally, our recent financial aid enhancement enables us to offer one of the most generous need-based financial aid programs in the country. The Dyckman Institute Scholarships are a part of Columbia’s commitment to making college affordable for all families and we thank Community Board 12 for their support of this important program.”
“Community Board 12 salutes each scholar on their commitment to excellence and academic achievement,” said Pamela Palenque-North, chair of the community board. “We are proud to have these students serve as role models for the children and youth of our Washington Heights and Inwood community.”
Regardless of where they have attended high school, students living in Washington Heights or Inwood who are interested in scholarships to attend Columbia should visit http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/ or call 212-854-2522.
