WALKS Scholars Named

The WALKS Foundation has named Westminster students Kierra Jones ’09, Xavier Fowler ’10 and Christopher Sailor ’11 as WALKS Scholars for the 2008-2009 academic year.

WALKS is an acronym for five Hartford area schools — Westminster School, Avon Old Farms School, Loomis Chafee School, Kingswood-Oxford School and Suffield Academy — which formed a consortium more than 50 years ago to provide educational opportunities for deserving students from the greater Hartford area.

Kierra, a resident of Middletown, Conn., is a returning WALKS Scholar and the Sorenson-Pearson Scholar. At Westminster, she serves as president of the Multicultural Student Union, as a student representative to the Diversity Committee, as a founder of Making a Difference and as an editor and a writer for The Westminster News. She also has participated in school dramatic productions as well as volleyball, soccer, softball and dance. In college, she hopes to major in political science and is considering a career in law, politics or writing.

Xavier Fowler, a resident of Bloomfield, Conn., is a Gummere Scholar and participates in the Asian Awareness Association and the Multicultural Student Union. Last year, he attended the Pieces of the Puzzle Student Leadership Conference. His extracurricular activities include football, martial arts, and track and field. He hopes to major in physiology and anatomy in college. He has been nominated twice for the People to People Student Ambassador Program and has volunteered at an orphanage in Ecuador.

Christopher Sailor, also a resident of Bloomfield, plays the tenor saxophone in the concert band, at the Artists Collective in Hartford and occasionally at jazz jam sessions. He also participates in soccer, track and baseball. He hopes to become a novelist.

In addition to the three WALKS Scholars, Taylor Gould ’09 was named a recipient of the Barnes Award in recognition of his exceptional volunteer service. He has served as president of Serving Our Neighbors (SON), organized the “Sneaker Sale” for the Walk for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF), mobilized schoolmates and faculty for JDRF’s fall walk and helped collect hundreds of pounds of food for Foodshare. An outstanding swimmer and captain of his team, Taylor also swam and convinced others to join him in a fund-raiser for cancer research. He has worked tirelessly to support the efforts of an alumna doctor to bring clothing to AIDS orphans in Uganda, was instrumental in ensuring the success of the school’s annual MS Walk and has spent afternoons at a Hartford magnet school mentoring and working with elementary school children.

All four students along with a number of their family members attended the annual WALKS Scholars luncheon Oct. 16 at the Hartford Club. As a part of the program, Kierra made a presentation about her Westminster experience. She spoke about how much she cherishes Westminster traditions and how much she appreciates her relationships with her teachers. She also described how the friendships she has made at Westminster have had a profound effect on her. “The traditions and values of Westminster have taught me about the type of person I would like to be,” she said. She ended by thanking the Sorenson-Pearson family and the WALKS Foundation for giving her this opportunity. “It was your generous donations that have allowed me to met the people I have and experience an unforgettable two years.”