Huntley Rotary Awards Scholarships

Five Huntley High School students were each presented with a $1,000 scholarship by Rotary Club of Huntley during a breakfast for award winners and their parents at Village Inn Restaurant on the Huntley Square, April 30, 2026. Students shared their goals, projects and told motivating stories.

Kerellos Abdelmalak and Allen Williams, future electrical engineers, participated in Project DJANKS, a NASA App Development Challenge finalist project where their team built a 3D educational visualization tool for NASA’s Artemis II mission around the moon, combining accurate trajectory modeling with a compelling outreach component.

SCARF (Sudden Cardiac Death Awareness Research Foundation) had a strong impact on Ella Doughty and Suhas Yalavarthi, two future physicians majoring in Neuroscience. While shadowing and volunteering they discovered SCARF, a nonprofit raising funds for AED’s, with core values of higher education, leadership, and critical thinking, guiding them to become better and more effective physicians.

Niko Knanishu, our Thom Palmer recipient and future special education teacher, developed teamwork and leadership skills as a student council president, Eagle scout, Illinois State board of Education summit participant, and first Student Advisory Representative on the District 158 Board of Education.

In addition, our RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) students, Gracie Sullivan and Hannah Gawlak, enthusiastically shared teambuilding experiences, and their feelings from programs with dynamic speakers at their weekend camps this spring in East Troy, Wisconsin.

Our world will be safer and better based on hearing the amazing experiences from these wonderful students and their exciting future plans.