Like most everything else in this time of social distancing, the annual awarding of scholarships and other recognition for Rock Island High School students was done online last month.

The Rock Island-Milan Education Foundation (RIMEF), led by executive director Monta Ponsetto, assembled a video presentation to detail and honor the accomplishments of 114 RIHS students, including awarding nearly $90,000 in scholarships. You can see the video at YouTube.com .

The ceremony recognized the top 10 students in each Rocky class, the departmental AAAA winners, and scholarship winners through the RIMEF Austin Academic Achievement Awards. Top Ten Certificates and scholarship award letters were mailed to the recipients’ homes.

Lah Paw was one of the scholarship recipients.

The RIMEF and Edwards Creative of Milan created this video announcing 68 scholarship award winners and recognizing the top-10 students.

The video features introductions from RIMEF board president Pryce T. Boeye, RIHS principal Jeff Whitaker, superintendent Reginald Lawrence and congratulations from teachers, alumni, scholarship benefactors, RIMEF board members, and Mayor Mike Thoms.

Eh Yee was one of the scholarship recipients.

A full list of all our scholarship recipients can be found at rimef.org under the Scholarships tab.

“We have been increasing the amount we’ve awarded each year as we add more scholarships,” Ponsetto said Monday. “We have at least two more to award next year. We gave out over $300,000 in scholarships, teacher grants, and other support to the district in 2019.”

The foundation – which has about $3 million in assets — was formed in 1986 to enhance academic opportunities for student success in the Rock Island-Milan School District. The foundation manages scholarships for students, distributes grants to teachers in the district for classroom needs, and works to fund programs throughout the District to aid students’ academic success.

Please leave this field empty

Free Breaking News
Alerts & Daily Digest
In Your Inbox!

Check your inbox to confirm your subscription.

Jonathan Turner

Jonathan Turner -- who has called the Quad Cities home since 1995 -- has decades of experience as a professional journalist and pianist. His experience writing for daily newspapers, public radio and local TV encompasses a wide range of subjects, including the arts, politics, education, economic development, historic preservation, business, and tourism.

Jonathan most loves writing about music and the arts (which he now does as a freelancer for the River Cities Reader and Visit Quad Cities). He has a passion for accompanying musicals, singers, choirs and instrumentalists, including playing for QC Music Guild's 2023 productions of RENT and SWEENEY TODD. He is assistant music director and accompanist for the spring 2025 Music Guild show, ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE. He wrote an original musical based on The Book of Job, which premiered at Playcrafters in 2010. Jonathan penned a 175-page history book about downtown Davenport, that was published by The History Press in 2016, and a travel guide about the QC published by Reedy Press in 2022.