WALKS Scholars Named

The WALKS Foundation has named Westminster students Xavier Fowler ’10, Christopher Sailor ’11 and Atesha Gifford ’12 as WALKS Scholars for the 2009-2010 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. For 53 years, the WALKS schools, working with local individuals, foundations and businesses, have supported the independent school education of Hartford-area students with demonstrated financial need.

Xavier Fowler, a resident of Bloomfield, Conn., and an honors student, is a returning Gummere Scholar. He participates in Dramat, the Improv Club, the EcoTeam, the Multicultural Student Union, The Martlet, Westminster News and First Football. He has been nominated twice for the People to People Student Ambassador Program and has volunteered at an orphanage in Ecuador. In college, Xavier hopes to major in biology and Asian studies.

Christopher Sailor, a returning scholar and a resident of Bloomfield, is an honors student and plays the tenor saxophone in the Concert Band, the Jazz Band and at the Artists Collective in Hartford. He also participates in First Boys’ Soccer and squash, and was named the Scull Most Valuable Trackster. His other activities include the Multicultural Student Union, Model United Nations, student mentoring and The Movement. He hopes to attend business school and become an entrepreneur.

Atesha Gifford, a resident of Manchester, Conn., is a Sorenson Pearson Scholar and a Steppingstone Scholar. She is a member of the Multicultural Student Union, The Movement and the Cook Nook, and is president of the Game Squad. She also likes to write poetry and participates in field hockey, basketball and softball. She hopes to become a corporate lawyer.

In addition to the three WALKS Scholars, Anne Cervas ’10, a National Merit Semifinalist, was named a recipient of the Barnes Award in recognition of her volunteer service and leadership. During her four years at Westminster, she has stepped forward to do whatever needs to been done in support of other people including “selling” paper sneakers to support Juvenile Diabetes, joining her classmates on a Walk for the Cure, collecting canned food for the local Simsbury Food Bank, bundling clothing for an orphanage in Afghanistan, organizing dances for Food Share, working a flower sale to support Gifts of Love and manning a rest stop for the MS Walk. She also won unanimous election by her peers to the presidency of SON (Serving Our Neighbors).

All four students along with a number of their family members attended the annual WALKS Scholars luncheon Oct. 20 at the Hartford Golf Club where Xavier gave remarks about assuming responsibility. “Few youth know or understand the expectations that are placed on them every day they perform in and out of the classroom,” he explained. “And even fewer realize that in and out of the classroom and in your daily life you are representing those that came before you, those that provided for you a chance to be in the place that you are in, and those that provide you with the opportunities to share your achievements with others.

He expressed appreciation to members of his family for all that they have done for him, the Westminster community for providing him opportunities “to make me a leader and take the next step to representing more than just those around me with whom I am directly affiliated,” and the WALKS Foundation and its supporters “who believe that within every generation there are those who still hold the traits and values that it takes to be a leader and represent their community.”