Rosemont Leadership Nominees Announced

Above: The Clarke County Education Foundation’s 2024 nominees for the Rosemont Leadership Award are Gabriel Ignacio, Anna Hornbaker, Sydney Kelble, and Delaney Collins.

The Clarke County Education Foundation (CCEF) is delighted to announce the nominees for this year’s Rosemont Leadership Award, established to honor a Clarke County High School graduating student demonstrating outstanding leadership potential. The Rosemont Leadership Award, CCEF’s most distinguished and substantial scholarship, grants the winner $10,000. It is funded by Biff Genda, proprietor of Historic Rosemont, and a matching gift from CCEF. The presentation will occur on Sunday, May 19 at 6pm during CCHS’s Senior Recognition Night.

The scholarship is being judged by a 5-person committee of local community members. This year the committee members are  Jay Arnold, Mayor of Berryville; Matthew Bass, attorney at Burnett & Williams and elected member of the Clarke County Board of Supervisors; Lauren McKay Cummings, Communications Strategist II & Employee Communications at Navy Federal Credit Union; Suni Mackall, retired Commonwealth’s Attorney for Clarke County; and Marianne Schmidt, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Bank of Clarke.

The teachers and staff of Clarke County High School voted on the top four leaders from the Class of 2024. A point based system was then used to select the final four nominees.

Those nominees are:

Delaney Collins is a member of the National Honor Society and has served as president of the CCHS Environmental club for two years. During that time she organized a community wide Pop-Up Thrift Shop that raised money for FISH of Clarke County.

Anna Hornbaker is the Interact Club president, Student Council vice president and a member of National Honor Society and Health Occupations Students of America(HOSA). She is also captain of the varsity softball team. She enjoys taking a variety of challenging classes at the high school with a focus on science classes and hopes to one day be a dermatologist.

Gabriel Ignacio moved to Clarke County in his third grade year. Since then he has become an active member of his local Scout Troop as an Eagle Scout, a member of the Student Council Administration for Clarke County High School, and the Robotics team programming department lead. Gabriel also participates in the Chess Club and Scholastic Bowl team. He loves camping and hiking as well as playing video games.

Sydney Kelble is a Senior and IB Diploma Candidate at Clarke County High School. She serves as President of the National Art Honors Society, senior class vice president, and served as junior class treasurer last year. She is also an active member of CCHS’s Chapter of the National Honor Society and the Environmental Club, and dedicates time towards service endeavors through both of those clubs.