With an amazing music and band program, it is no wonder many students at CHS enjoy playing instruments. However, college for music can be extremely expensive, with tuition ranging from $3,000 to $50,000. However, scholarships can greatly help students to fund their musical abilities. Scholarships such as Rotary’s Dan Stover Musical Scholarship make the price of a higher education more manageable. This scholarship is given out to seniors with talent in music. The Dan Stover musical scholarship was founded to encourage high school upperclassmen to continue the performance and love of music throughout their college experience.

The Rotary Club is an international organization that is devoted to the service of communities and the involvement of America’s youth to help the community. They also address issues such as human rights and humanitarian services. It was established in 1905 and is a secular organization that anyone may join, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, sex, or religion. Claremont Rotary has been offering scholarships since its existence. It offers scholarship programs for students attending four year colleges. The club’s motto is “Service Above Self,” and this remains one of the guiding principles that influences them to organize scholarship opportunities for America’s teens.

Rotary District 5300 will be offering a musical scholarship in honor of Stover. Pianist and Organist Stover was always the musician accompanying Rotary events. On May 21, high school upperclassmen will have the chance to win a $5,000 scholarship, with the runnerups receiving $1,000 each. However, the amount of additional scholarship funds awarded will depend on all of the individual clubs that will participate. The scholarship is limited to instrumentalists only, but any type of instrument is allowed. In order to participate in the scholarship competition, the musician must be a high school junior or senior and they need to be sponsored by a Rotary District 5300 Club, which involves an application process that can be found on Rotary’s website. The competition starts at the club level, with the winners of the club advancing to regionals. The winners of regionals will go further to the District competition on May 21 in San Diego for a chance to win the scholarship. Senior Dorothy Kang competed with a piano piece and moved onto the next level. The Claremont Rotary Director Bridget Healy is very excited about the scholarship and is aware of the beneficial things that Rotary offers.

“Rotary is cognizant of the importance of higher education in developing the skills and knowledge that young people will need for life, community and service.” Healy said.

The role of the Claremont Rotary scholarships are to recognize students achievements while providing an easier way to access a higher quality of education. The scholarships serve to enrich and develop the next generation of thinkers and leaders while keeping them in touch with their passions and hobbies.

The Dan Stover Musical scholarship acts to motivate and assist America’s youth, which is one of the key principles behind Rotary’s goals, allowing students to pursue their dream of music at college allows them to play at a professional level. It also encourages America’s youth to continue to develop their musical skills and to contribute to the musical performance after high school.