The Andover Garden Club is seeking qualified Massachusetts students to apply for the Ruth I. Cleveland Scholarship Fund, which memorializes the late Ruth Cleveland, a longtime resident of Andover who served as president of the Andover Garden Club from 1954 to 1956.
The memorial scholarship is given annually in recognition of her efforts to enrich the lives of garden-club members in the pursuit of the arts and sciences.
The Fund was initiated more than 35 years ago by her two children: Ann C. Lange, an internationally known floral arranger, artist, and lifelong resident of Andover, who herself served as president of the Andover Garden Club from 1985-1987, and the late Byron R. Cleveland, Jr. The fund grows yearly through donations from the Lange family and the Andover Garden Club.
Applicants for the scholarship must be graduate or undergraduate students pursuing the study of the arts and/or sciences.
“Mother taught English and French in the Lawrence school system for many years. She was also a skilled gardener and flower arranger who loved all the arts, especially painting and sculpture,” said Lange.
“We wanted the scholarship to reflect her broader interests, so didn’t limit it to horticulture, landscape design, or floriculture, but instead opened it up to any student interested in studying the arts or sciences.”
The Ruth I. Cleveland Scholarship Fund is one of eleven scholarships administered by the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Inc. (GCFM), the parent organization of the Andover Garden Club.
The other scholarships, which also award amounts up to $1,000, are geared to students majoring in horticulture, floriculture, landscape design, conservation, forestry, agronomy, city planning, environmental studies, land management, botany, biology, and allied subjects.
The deadline for submitting applications is March 1, 2018. Applicants must be residents of Massachusetts, have a minimum grade average of B (3.0 on a 4.0 scale), exhibit good character, and demonstrate financial need. Applications, financial aid forms, and scholarship descriptions can be downloaded from the GCFM website at http://gcfm.org/Education/Scholarships/GCFMScholarships.aspx.
Official recognition of the scholarship winners takes place at the close of the fiscal year on June 30, 2018, when letters will be sent out to winners and all other applicants.
For further inquiries, please contact the GCFM scholarship secretary, Kathie Jones, at gcfmscholarship@aol.com.
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(We sincerely thank Frances Wheeler for the above press information, which has been edited for space considerations.)