2024 SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS
Meet Our 2024
"Think About What Your Are Going To Do In The Future" Scholarship Winners
We at Julia’s Grace Foundation are proud to announce the winners of our 2024 Think About What You Are Going To Do in the Future scholarships.
Awarded to childhood cancer patients and their siblings, these $1,000 scholarships can be used for post-high school education or training programs.
Scholarship applicants completed essays about how childhood cancer has affected their lives and how they have used their experience to make a positive impact on others.
For Olivia Demmler, the kindness shown by her care team at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) during her treatment for ependymoma inspired her to pay it forward: she enrolled at Temple University, majoring in recreational therapy with the goal of becoming a child life specialist. Now entering her junior year, Olivia has truly lived her values, volunteering for numerous organizations and camps dedicated to supporting cancer patients and their families.
A stubborn bout of strep that turned out to be synovial sarcoma may have derailed his senior year at Pennsbury High School, but for Sam Labrecque the dedication of his care team helped him recognize an important truth: that one’s success comes from the support of others, and that he has the ability to make others’ lives better. Putting this into practice, Sam volunteers at his church and is participating in research aimed at better understanding—and developing better treatments for—synovial sarcoma. Having wrapped up a postgraduate year at the Peddie School (and a successful baseball season—hitting .304 despite going through treatments), Sam plans to begin college in fall 2024.
The spring before his freshman year of high school, Nicholas Matyas received a cancer diagnosis. One of his first questions—after recovering from the shock—was, “Can I still swim?” As it turns out, the answer was a resounding “Yes!,” as Nicholas went on to captain his high school swim team, earning numerous honors along the way. It is just this determination that Nicholas brought to West Virginia University’s nursing program, where he is currently working toward his goal of becoming a pediatric oncology nurse.
In 2022, Edgerin McArthur feared that his dreams of becoming a film/television executive producer were over: just after starting his junior year, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. The frequent hospital admissions and chemotherapy were tough, but with the support of the hospital staff, he overcame these challenges—participating in activities, talking about his future, and even giving interviews with CBS and Fox. Edgerin took from his experiences a renewed appreciation of the value of communication and self-discovery. Now, having undergone surgery and completed chemotherapy, Edgerin plans to enroll in digital filmmaking courses with an eye to pitching a project idea to network executives—an opportunity he will get in spring 2025 thanks to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Watching her sister Ness fight brain and spine cancer presented difficult challenges for Kyra Stauffer, but over time she took from that experience a recognition of how close it allowed her family to grow (their annual “cancer-versary” observance to celebrate that Ness is still with them is a particular highlight). It also gave her an appreciation of how much of a difference nurses can make to families like hers—and now Kyra is in her second year of nursing school at West Chester University.