2025 Scholarship Award Announcement
The Sunflower Initiative is pleased to announce our new 2025 Harriet Fitzgerald Scholars, Mckenna Jost and Ainara Vecchia.
Mckenna, a 2025 Fitzgerald scholar was an early decision admission to Wellesley, her top choice in a field of women’s colleges. A graduate of Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas, NV, Mckenna was a National Merit Semifinalist, President of DECA, Secretary of the Speech and Debate Club, President of the International Baccalaureate Council, member of National Honor Society. Captain of the Lacrosse team, and volunteer coach for youth Lacrosse and swim teams.
Academic and extra-curricular activities were strong qualifications for the Fitzgerald scholarship, but Mckenna’s deep commitment to the unique opportunities of a women’s college convinced the Scholarship Committee that she would be an excellent ambassador for both women’s colleges and The Sunflower Committee.
Mckenna’s essay for the Fitzgerald Scholarship is a superb treatise on the value of a women’s college. She cites the influence of female leaders who are graduates of women’s college and particularly her Lacrosse coach who is a Wellesley graduate.
From her essay:
“. . . women’s colleges stand out with an identity entirely their own. They are known for uplifting female scholarship and fostering supportive and diverse communities of learners. . . . .
Attending a school like Wellesley, where the dorms, dining halls, library and academic halls are all named after incredible women means I will be surrounded by buildings celebrating female achievement. This attitude of recognizing female success may begin with the buildings, but it permeates every aspect of Wellesley and other female colleges’ cultures.. . . .
Almost every college has a few notable alumni they can brag about, but I truly believe that not every college creates the same kind of alumni that women’s colleges do. Women’s colleges recognize that there is more than one kind of greatness, and they give every individual they educate the tools, knowledge and values to go out and make a difference . . .”
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.”