NILES – Tears were shed and cheering echoed in Niles High School’s auditorium during the 98th annual scholarship assembly. Alumni, area organizations and school groups awarded scholarships to 40 students.

Counselor Jenny Freeze opened the event, stating the ceremony gave the high school the opportunity to honor and celebrate students and their achievements.  She noted that over 350 applications were sent in by NHS students for the scholarships.

Ninth through 12-grade students and family and friends of the student awardees sat in front of Freeze. Superintendent Dan Applegate sat to her right.

To Freeze’s left were the awarders of the scholarships given to students. Each scholarship’s roots were in the Niles community, whether the school or the city. Many of the awarders and original benefactors were alumni of the high school, teachers or longtime residents of the area.

“Local organizations have selected these scholarships recipients,” she said. “It is important to emphasize this point because the commitment our community has made to support your pursuit of furthering your education is quite impressive.”

Freeze announced the name of each award and the names of those presenting it one-by-one. The awarders would then walk to the podium, give a short speech on the scholarship’s history, and its requirements, then announce the scholarship’s winners.

Some awarders shared stories of the people who started the scholarships. Some awarders also gave pieces of advice to the high school seniors present.

Bill Siderits gave the inaugural Dan Holland Memorial Scholarship that morning.

Siderits, a 2008 graduate of NHS, spoke on behalf of Dan Holland’s parents, siblings and friends. Holland was a classmate of Siderits who died this year on March 20.

Holland was a catcher on NHS’s baseball team and a center on its football team. Siderits said it wasn’t Holland’s athletic abilities that made him valuable on a sports team, but his passion and “unrelenting toughness.”

Cade Best won the memorial scholarship. Siderits and the awardee selection team thought Best embodied Holland’s traits.

“We encourage you to be bold,” Siderits told the NHS seniors. “Follow one another. And most of all, love one another.”

Stephanie Wuthnow, who presented the Andrew Wuthnow NHS Track Scholarship, also spoke on high school sports team. Her late son Andrew was part of the NHS track team, and Stephanie thought the sport helped student-athletes learn to depend on one another.

“One of the main things in life that is so important is having people to depend on,” she said. “We all need people to depend on. So, I want to challenge you, Class of 2019, to be that person people can depend on.”

Austin Brookins was the recipient of the Andrew Wuthnow NHS Track Scholarship.

Hannah Kiggins was the recipient of the David Yomtoob Most Improved Senior Scholarship. She received it from David’s father, Joe Yomtoob, who taught at Niles Community Schools.

Yomtoob said he and his wife immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s, with little money in their pockets and little English learned. Yet, they persevered, and Yomtoob eventually went to college to become a teacher. NCS hired him shortly after.

“They took a chance on me, and I stayed here for 22 years, so this is one to show the Niles community for their generosity and kindness for me and when my son David was very sick.”

Yomtoob used his experience as an immigrant to give the senior class a post-high school insight.

“You will do well in school. You will do well in whatever you want to do. This country is a place of opportunity,” he said. “And if you become somebody, help somebody else become somebody,” he added later.

A full list of scholarship recipients from the scholarship assembly can be found on the second page.