We had a total of thirteen Dallastown Area High School (DAHS) students apply for the 2023 Daren M Hidalgo Scholarship. The memorial scholarship committee decided to award a scholarship to both Ava Markel and Kayla Sebastian. Ava Markel was a member of the Dallastown Varsity field Hockey team and served as Captain her senior year. She was a National Honor Society member all four years and served as President. Ava also served as Co-Editor in Chief of the Beacon (school newspaper) and won three national awards from the Student News Online (SNO) for exemplary articles. She was the Special Events and Fundraising Committee Chair for the Dallastown Mini-Thon which assists families with pediatric cancer. This fall she will be pursuing a degree in psychology. From the University of Florida. Kayla Sebastian was on the Student Council since 7th grade and in her senior year was selected as Student Council President. Her classmates also selected her to serve as the Class 2023 Treasurer for all four years, and treasurer for the National Honor Society and Math Honor Society. She was on the girls tennis team throughout high school and volunteered as a mentor for the district’s Tennis for Kids program. She demonstrated her musical talents by playing the violin as a member of the high school’s symphonic orchestra, string orchestra, and the selective string ensemble. Kayla excelled academically as demonstrated by attaining the Distinguished Honor Roll all four years. She is heavily involved in the community and has volunteered over 100 hours of her time at the York County Food Bank and countless hours at her Sunday School each week. Kayla will be attending University of Maryland in the fall and will major in biochemistry and Spanish.
DMH Scholarship to Ava Markel and Kayla Sebastian presented by Dr. Phillip Bayliss