Every year the Lower Macungie Garden Club’s budget supports a $1,500 scholarship fund awarded as three $500 scholarships to graduating seniors residing in Lower Macungie Township who will pursue further study in such fields as biology, environmental science, horticulture or agriculture in keeping with the club’s area of interest.

This is a commitment to education that the Lower Macungie Garden Club is pleased to be able to continue yearly.

Three Emmaus High School seniors recently received the Lower Macungie Garden Club Scholarships.

Sonya Boukengolts will attend the University of Pittsburgh in the fall with a major in environmental science and international relations. Boukengolts participated in a variety of extracurricular activities, including being the captain of the tennis team, an awardee of the Emmaus High School Academic Award for Environmental Science, a participant in the astronomy club and was the photographer for the student newspaper “The Stinger.” Boukengolts was also part of the “Collage” magazine editorial team, Model U.N. and a mentor for the freshman class. She is pursuing a dream of working for the United Nations on environmental science initiatives around the world.

Mirai Inaoka will attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the fall studying environmental science. Last summer she attended an intensive agricultural program with the Pennsylvania School of Excellence in Agricultural Sciences, where she became interested in crop sciences and the impact of prevalent global issues, particularly water scarcity and world hunger. Inaoka had many leadership positions in her extracurricular activities in school, including president of the interact club, club officer for the Envirothon, treasurer of both the PA Math League and the mud club and served as a board member of the Principal’s Advisory Board.

Nathaniel Moore will attend the main campus of Penn State University in the fall to study turfgrass management. Moore will also be working at Penn State as part of their grounds crew beginning in August. Currently Moore works at the Elite Sports Academy to relieve the financial burden of college, plus he has maintained an excellent scholastic record in addition to holding leadership positions as manager of the school baseball team and the PA Math League. He is a member of National Honor Society and enjoys playing basketball.