We are excited to introduce you to Elizabeth Larsen, the 2018 Vicki Soto Memorial Scholarship recipient from Bunnell High School. Elizabeth will be attending Housatonic Community College in the Fall for Early Childhood Education. After winning the scholarship, she said, “When I heard my name called as the winner of the Victoria Soto Memorial Fund Scholarship I started shaking from excitement…it was all I could do to walk across the stage. Winning this scholarship means a great deal to me. I truly believe Miss Soto was a superhero. I hope to have the same love and respect from my students someday that she had and be the kind of teacher that she was.”
Elizabeth is such an enthusiastic, warm, kind and wonderful senior who is ready to pursue her passion of becoming an educator. She has already attended college orientation and when we spoke to her this summer she said that she was very much looking forward to starting her college career!
In addition, Elizabeth told us, “This June, after graduation, I participated in the Barnum Festival Road Show for the second season as a “Barnumette” dancer. The Barnumettes are a group my brother and I started when he was Barnum Festival King last year. We asked several of our friends from KICKS Dance Center to be in the Road Show with us, and it was such fun, everyone did it again. We even added three new younger girls to prime the group for next year since the senior class will retire. We visited nineteen convalescent, retirement homes and special needs facilities over three days around the Bridgeport area. We were on the front page of the Connecticut Post and had a float in the Great Street Parade. As part of the Barnumettes, I also danced and modeled in a charity fashion show for the Angel Fund, which helps families who have lost a baby.”
We are so honored to welcome Elizabeth to the VSMF family! We wish Elizabeth all the best at school and in her journey to become a teacher.
Pictured from right to left Katelyn Root recipient in 2016, Mathew Soto, Elizabeth Larsen, and Jessica Tailercio recipient in 2017.
