The Board of the Mercer Island Sister City Association has announced three Mercer Island High School 2019 graduating seniors as this year’s recipients of the French Student Scholarship Awards.

The $500 Senior French Awards recognize senior students who excel as students of the French language, but also ambassadors of the community to other communities and countries.

The awards were presented on June 5 at the Senior Awards Ceremony, by former MISCA board president Rich Conrad and board member Natalie Debray. The winners are Hannah Whobrey, Ella Velovich and Brandon Hill.

Whobrey

Whobrey’s French teacher says she is a wonderful French student and a joy to teach. Whobrey participated in the Sister City Exchange program in 2017. She is proficient in Chinese. She plans to attend Tufts University in Boston and will double major in French and anthropology.

Hill

Hill participated in the Sister City Exchange in 2017. He plans to study global health and languages at Dartmouth College next year. He hopes to use his French through projects in francophone Africa or possibly in Geneva with the World Health Organization.

Veljovich

Veljovich’s teacher says she is one of the hardest working students she has taught at the high school. Ella was part of the exchange to Thonon in 2017. Her grandmother is from La Rochelle in France, so it was her dream to be able to converse with her in French. She was a top AP French student last year and earned the highest marks on her test.