YORKTOWN HEIGHTS – Three 2008 graduates of the Communications Academy at BOCES Tech Center received coveted memorial scholarships named for former students and a former teacher at the Putnam/Northern Westchester Board of Educational Services program.

They were recognized at a gathering that included faculty, administrators, and both current and former students.

“This is my favorite day to come to work,” said Vito Rinaldo, Communications Academy teacher who led the award ceremony. “These scholarships are in memory of people who had an impact on many other people’s lives.”

Margaret Welch (Lakeland) received the 2008 Scott Purdy Memorial award of $1,000 from Mrs. Jean Purdy of Croton-on-Hudson. Margaret, a graduate of BOCES’ TV Production program, is currently a TV Production student at New York Institute of Technology. Her scholarship is named in honor of Mrs. Purdy’s son, Scott, also a Communications Academy graduate, who died of cancer in 1997. Before his untimely death, Scott was “on his way to something great and it was all because of BOCES,” Mrs. Purdy said.

Beatrice Garofalo (Yorktown), an Advertising Art & Design graduate at the Academy, received the 2008 Rosamaria Marinaccio Memorial Scholarship of $1,000. Beatrice is now a Studio Art major at Marymount College. The Marinaccio award was presented by Alexa Marinaccio, also a BOCES graduate, in honor of her mother who had been a high-school art student. “I came here [to BOCES] for art,” Ms. Marinaccio said, “and it absolutely changed my life.” Once a reluctant student, she said, she is working on her master’s degree at Manhattanville and plans to teach biology.

Christina Crimarco (Yorktown) received the $500 Ingrid Boffi Memorial Scholarship, given in remembrance of an Advertising Art & Design teacher who came to BOCES in 1984 and died of cancer in 2003. Christina is studying Graphic Design at Cazenovia College.

All the scholarships are named for individuals of character and integrity who embody goals strived for at the Communications Academy. Celebrating its 13th year, the Academy includes courses in TV Production & Digital Film, Advertising Art & Design, Computer Graphics, and Fashion Design and is expected to add Animation & Motion Graphics next year.

PHOTO CAPTION: BOCES Communications Academy graduates (from left) Margaret Welch (Lakeland), Beatrice Garofalo (Yorktown),  and Christina Crimarco (Yorktown) were awarded the Scott Purdy Memorial Scholarship, the Rosamaria Marinaccio Memorial Scholarship, and the Ingrid Boffi Memorial Scholarship, respectively, at a ceremony on December 23 at Putnam/Northern Westchester Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

(Press release courtesy of Barbara Coats/BOCES.)