Spring-Ford High School Graduate Emily Kemmerer Needs Your Vote

By Andreina Erwin & Emily Kemmerer

One of our own just graduated from Spring-Ford Area Senior High School. Her name is Emily Kemmerer. She ranked among the top 20 of her graduating class. In the future, she would like to be an author. However, her near thoughts are in the publishing business, for which she has enrolled in Rosemont College. Emily submitted an essay into Kaplan’s College Equals scholarship contest at a time when she and her single mom were struggling financially. It had been a hard month between rent, bills, college deposits, and prom, and between the two of them they had very little money. Emily claims her mom, Stephanie Marin, will never let her see how scared she is, however. She soldiers on without complaint.

Ever since Emily and her older sister, Mariah, were little, their mom always told them that their main goal should be their education. Boys and everything else come after that. Emily’s mom, speaks from the perspective of a woman who didn't go to college, and found herself trapped in a horrible marriage for over twenty years because she didn't make enough money to leave Emily’s dad. She couldn’t support herself or her daughter until she was promoted to a management position recently in the past few years, but even with the promotion, life isn’t easy.

Her mom’s dream is of Emily and her sister being educated and self-supporting, never having to suffer what Stephanie had to go through, to rely on anyone else and be trapped by it. Emily never told her mom about entering this essay contest, so when Stephanie got the email announcing Emily had been selected as a finalist and actually read her submission, she called her daughter early in the morning from work to express how excited she was and how touched. In order to win a scholarship, however, they would need to appeal to friends and family across Facebook to vote.

Emily and her mom have been moved by the response they have gotten from friends and family already, even more so from the strangers who keep voting, sharing, and expressing words of support. However, they still need a lot of votes to win. Remember, Emily Kemmerer is our local story. You can vote every 24 hours for Emily K. Please make it possible and help Emily and her mom to win this needed Kaplan SAT scholarship!

The following link will take you to Kaplan SAT & ACT Prep voting site in Facebook.