Community Scholarships awarded to Park City High School seniors for colleges and trades

Back To Our Roots Eileen G. Bailey Memorial Scholarships recipients: (L-R) Emily Santander, Adolfo Riveroll, Augie Roepke, and Alexander Garcia Hernandez. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

PARK CITY, Utah — Park City High School’s graduating Class of 2026 was awarded numerous community scholarships toward colleges and trade schools in a ceremony at the Eccles Theater on Tuesday.

Monica Settlemire is the scholarships advisor in her first year in the role. When she took to the podium in front of parents, donors and students, she thanked many people for their help, adding, “Especially Pepper Elliot, for all your support and guidance.” Elliot, who transitioned out of that position after last year’s ceremony and continues in a slightly different role working closely with the Park City Education Foundation, also spoke later in the program. She said, “I want to give a shout-out to Monica Settlemire, doing such an amazing job, taking over with scholarships this year. She’s intelligent, organized, caring, and super dedicated. We’re really lucky to have her here, I’m so happy to work closely with her, and I call her a friend.”

Regarding the Back to Our Roots 1824 Scholarship, it’s founder, former PCSD Teacher Tommy Tanzer told TownLift,”Helping these students get to the future is building a future for all of us.”
Two PCHS alumna from the past few years, both first-generation college students, both daughters of Hispanic immigrants, one getting her degree in the medical field, and one in the legal field spoke about Tanzer telling the crowd that he, “has a way of making people feel genuinely seen,” and that he’s “inspired them to give back to their community.”

During the ceremony, Park City High School Alumni Entrepreneurial Scholarship Fund donor and Summit Sotheby’s Realtor Liza Story explained that the fund is sustained solely by PCHS alumni who own and operate businesses in Park City. Donors were looking for students who showed initiative, resilience, creativity, problem-solving, leadership, collaboration, vision, drive and adaptability, as well as the potential to stay in Park City, operate a business, raise a family and be part of the community they were raised in. Donors included Flight Boutique, Harvest Mood Events and Exclusive Excursions. Recipients were Scarlett Abbett, Eva McNulty Van Oordt, Brian Roberts and Dmitriy Siminovskiy.

Youth Sports Alliance Executive Director Emily Fisher told the crowd this was the organization’s best year ever, with 3,800 kids going through the after-school sports program.

Multiple memorial scholarships were awarded in the names of beloved community members, former students and school staff. Those honored included Abby Lee Peterson, Grant Seaver, Blair Feulner, David Chaplin, Diane Redington, Lala G. Martinez, Oscar Wedegaertner, Sean Krajeski, Paul Hewitt, Ryann Mitchell, Sylvia Peterson Wright, Tanner Stratton, Will Lovell III, the Cozy family and Riley Hancey.

Community members, organizations or businesses interested in creating a scholarship for next year are encouraged to contact Park City High School.