2025 Scholarship Award Announcement
The Sunflower Initiative is pleased to announce our new 2025 Harriet Fitzgerald Scholars, Hayden Ayers and Ainara Vecchia.
Hayden will attend Hollins University in the fall following an exemplary academic and athletic record as an International Baccalaureate student at Brooke Point High School in Stafford, VA. She was elected to the National Honor Society as a sophomore, received the Honor Roll Certificate of Distinction from the VA House of Delegates for her 10th, 11th, and 12th grades and lettered in Volleyball all four of her high school years.
The scholarship committee was impressed by Hayden’s high degree of emotional intelligence and maturity, and her strong drive to help others as evidenced by hours devoted to peer and community centered volunteer projects. She designed more than 100 Journals of Hope that her high school counselors use with students struggling with mental health issues, organized “Volley at the Park” instructing and coaching volleyball for elementary and middle school students at a local park, and created individualized themed memory boxes for Alzheimer’s patients, based on research she has done on popular culture from earlier years.
Hollins University was Hayden’s top choice: “From the admissions office to the coaches and professors, you can tell how much they not only value their relationships with the students but how much they are championing for the students to succeed in all aspects of their life on and off campus. The focus on female advocacy also really resonates with me. It’s so comforting to know that my voice will be valued in a place that encourages women to speak up not only to be heard, but to be listened to and considered. . . And last but not least, my passion for volleyball is supported by an amazing team, . . . with coaches and players who genuinely care about me, ensuring I can excel both athletically and academically. Hollins University checks all the boxes for me, making it the perfect place to pursue my dreams.”
Ainara graduated cum laude in 2024 from Albuquerque Academy. During her high school years, she earned the highest awards given at Albuquerque Academy: the Wong award given for achievement, creativity, curiosity and integrity and the Van Hooker III award recognizing a love of art, literature, and a “vivid perception of humanity.” She was active in theatre, choral performance, printmaking, and teaching art techniques with younger children.
Ainara committed to Bryn Mawr College after a visit where she found “women [who] were intellectually curious, vivacious, and confident. I believe in the power of place, and I knew immediately that this was a space that offered a different kind of opportunity, one that would encourage my authentic growth.” In a decision to take a gap year after high school she reasoned that, “. . .while I was excited about college, I felt I wasn’t ready for it yet. I needed to spend time getting to know myself and my goals so I could better take advantage of my college experience and education.” She has put her gap year to good use, living independently as a zipline guide in the Smokey Mountains where she encountered people from all different walks of life and where she earned money for the second half of her year living with a family in the Basque region of Spain.
Ainara impressed the scholarship committee with the maturity that guided her preparation for her gap year, her self-assurance and her appreciation for the opportunities of a women’s college education. In her essay, she writes, “The more I outlined my priorities for college, the more they aligned with the fundamentals of a women’s college. A place where there is a baseline understanding of the value of womanhood . . . The opportunity to spend these next four years in a community made by and for women with respect and equality while America at large is rolling back decades of progress on reproductive rights and protection of diversity is one I am extremely grateful for.”