The Kiwanis Club of Huntington is just as impressed with Huntington High School Class of 2017 salutatorian Miranda Nykolyn as her classmates and teachers have been over the past four years.
The organization presented the teenager with its coveted Quentin Sammis Memorial Award in recognition of her work with the Key Club and her potential to go out and change the world.
Ms. Nykolyn is headed to Stanford University to study aerospace engineering and row on the Cardinal crew team. A national rowing champion, she has a long list of talents and interests and shined throughout high school.
Miranda Nykolyn has won the Kiwanis Club's
Quentin Sammis memorial scholarship.
Secretary of Huntington’s Key Club chapter, the teenager played an integral role in the group’s drive to make the community a better place for folks of all ages. Treasurer of the Science Honor Society, Ms. Nykolyn was a longtime participant in the high school’s science research program and she excelled at all things STEM.
Ms. Nykolyn has traveled internationally with EF Tours on trips led by social studies teacher Camille Tedeschi to Peru, the Gallapogos Islands and Ecuardor. She played on the Blue Devil varsity tennis team, served on the Relay For Life organizing committee and competed on the Mathletes squad.
An Advanced Placement Scholar with Honor, Ms. Nykolyn was inducted into six different Huntington High School academic honor societies. There’s no doubt that Mr. Sammis would have been pleased to meet her and have his name associated with the teenager.
Born May 16, 1924, Quentin Byron Sammis was a member of Huntington’s Class of 1942. He went on to serve his country as an ensign in the United States Navy, earn an electrical engineering degree at Georgia School of Technology (he began his college studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and an MBA at Harvard Business School, serve as owner and president of Coldwell Banker Sammis real estate and Sammis, Smith & Brush insurance and lead Friends World College as its president.
The Quentin Sammis Memorial Award is given to individuals who show “great passion” for service to their school and community, according to Kiwanis Club officials Matthew Minero and John Reilly, who presented the award to Ms. Nykolyn during Huntington High School’s senior academic awards ceremony in June.
Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers, dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community at a time. The local chapter believes that Ms. Conte has the ability and determination to achieve great things for society as she moves on to college and an eventual career.
The Kiwanis Club considers the sponsorship of its service leadership programs, such as the Key Club, to be among the most important projects it undertakes. The Key Club seeks to develop leadership, build character and provide service to the school and community.
In light of her considerable efforts on behalf of Huntington’s Key Club, Ms. Nykolyn is viewed as a perfect choice for the scholarship presented in honor of Mr. Sammis, who served as town supervisor and as a town board member and who was a charter member and past president of the Kiwanis Club of Huntington.
Ms. Nykolyn was presented with a special certificate by Messrs. Minero and Reilly along with a check for $1,000, which represents the stipend that comes with the Quentin Sammis Memorial Award.
Mr. Sammis founded the Townwide Fund of Huntington and the Huntington Arts Council and at one time or another was integrally involved in the YMCA, Huntington Hospital, the Visiting Nurse Service and the Family Service League. The Huntington High School graduate served in the US Navy during World War II and in the U.S. Navy Reserve for two decades.
Mr. Sammis, whose family has lived in Huntington village for generations dating to the Revolutionary War, passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his loved ones on August 29, 2007 after battling cancer for 13 months. He was 83.