Sixteen high school seniors from Westchester County received Jandon Scholarships this month during a press conference orchestrated by the county Board of Legislators.
For the 17th consecutive year, the Jandon Foundation, created in 1965 by Donald and Jane Cecil, of Harrison, awarded $12,000 to each student over a four-year period. Students are given $1,500 during their freshman year, and their annual funding increases by $1,000 each year to reward them for staying in school and maintaining good grades.
The scholarship funds go directly to the students so they can retain other financial aid opportunities.
During the press conference, county Legislator Michael Kaplowitz, a Yorktown Democrat, said, “Our Jandon Scholarship program this year is certainly tinged with sadness because of the passing of Jane Cecil last July.”
This marks the first class of scholars to receive the award since her death.
The Cecils moved to Westchester in 1960 and to Harrison in 1980. Donald Cecil was a founding partner at the hedgefund Cumberland Associates LLC in 1970, and has been a philanthropist in the community since creating the Jandon Foundation.
“We have concentrated our efforts in the community, both in artistic events and in education,” Donald Cecil said.
The Jandon Foundation has funded the Westchester Philharmonic, Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers, the Writing Through the Arts program at the Neuberger Museum of Arts at SUNY Purchase, and the I Have a Dream program in Mount Vernon, which provided 52 sixth-grade students with aid for college upon their high school graduation.
“Based on what we learned from that program, we developed the Jandon Scholarship,” Donald Cecil said. The Cecils have committed to providing scholarships for at least 20 years, totaling approximately $2 million.
In order for students to be eligible for Jandon Scholarships, their families must meet financial guidelines. Many Jandon scholars come from families receiving financial assistance. The Board of Legislators helps the foundation find students who qualify. This year, there were 158 applicants.
Applicants endure a rigorous process that includes the submission of test scores, essays, transcripts and recommendations. The Jandon board sifts out the top 30 applicants before conducting interviews to select the winners.
The foundation claims the scholarship recipients’ college graduation rate is more than 90 percent. This number is in contrast to the 59 percent graduation rate nationwide, according to 2013 statistics by the National Center for Education Statistics.
The foundation attributes much of its scholars’ success to the support system that the scholarship creates.
“We are your partners for the next four years to help you succeed,” Alec Cecil, son of Donald and Jane, told the recipients.
The foundation has held two annual events for more than 200 recipients who have received the award since 1999, including a pool party in the summer.
Imani Williams, a recipient of the scholarship in 2012 who recently graduated from Manhattanville College, spoke to this year’s award winners during the ceremony. She told the honorees that the scholarship is not just monetary. “This is an opportunity to network,” she said, comparing the scholarship to a real-life LinkedIn.
The Jandon Scholarship network includes Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas, a Democrat.
“There are a number, of course, who have gone on to get their more senior degrees—master’s and Ph.Ds.—but he’s the one public figure, I guess, so far,” Donald Cecil said.
He said he hopes more Jandon scholars will go on to serve their communities in the future.
“I hope for them all to be good citizens and to be honest, to be moral, to be successful, and, hopefully, to give back,” he said. Donald Cecil stressed that selecting recipients is as much a matter of character as it is of academic success.
