Berryville, VA, April 23, 2024 – The Clarke County Education Foundation (CCEF) is delighted to announce the nominees for this year’s Rosemont Leadership Award, established to honor a Clarke County High School graduating student demonstrating outstanding leadership potential. The Rosemont Leadership Award, CCEF’s most distinguished and substantial scholarship, grants the winner $10,000. This award is inspired by the Star Leadership Award, historically bestowed by the Byrd Family of Newspapers and discontinued in 2018. The presentation will occur on Sunday, May 19th at 6pm during CCHS’s Senior Recognition Night.
“The discontinuation of the Star Leadership Award left a notable gap in the annual recognition of our senior students. The scholarship was a considerable financial asset to a student and also stood as a lofty goal for the graduating class,” expressed Beth Williams, Executive Director of CCEF. “We are profoundly grateful for Mr. Genda’s generosity, which ensures the continuation of this tradition in our extraordinary Clarke County community for the fourth year in a row.”
Biff Genda, proprietor of Historic Rosemont in Berryville, proposed the inception of this scholarship to the foundation. He pledged an annual $5,000 donation, matched by the CCEF, culminating in a $10,000 scholarship each year. Furthermore, Genda graciously offered Rosemont as the venue for the foundation’s annual gala at no cost, aiding their fundraising endeavors. This year’s gala, held on March 15th, saw over 300 participants and successfully raised upwards of $60,000 for the CCEF, thereby supporting its commitment to enhancing educational opportunities for Clarke County Public Schools’ students and staff.
The scholarship is being judged by a 5-person committee of local community members. This year the committee members are Jay Arnold, Mayor of Berryville, Matthew Bass, attorney at Burnett & Williams, and elected member of the Clarke County Board of Supervisors, Lauren McKay Cummings, Communications Strategist II & Employee Communications at Navy Federal Credit Union, Suni Mackall, retired Commonwealth’s Attorney for Clarke County and Marianne Schmidt, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Bank of Clarke.
The teachers and staff of Clarke County High School voted on the top 4 leaders from the Class of 2024. A point based system was then used to select the final 4 nominees. Those nominees are (in alphabetical order):
Delaney Collins
Delaney Collins is a member of the National Honor Society and has served as President of the CCHS Environmental club for two years. During that time she organized a community wide Pop-Up Thrift Shop that raised money for FISH of Clarke County. In 2023, Delaney was one of 60 Virginia high school students selected to attend the Virginia Governor’s World Spanish Language Academy. She has participated as a member of the CCHS Screamin’ Eagles Marching Band for 6 years and was section leader for Tuba and Baritone and was Co-Captain of the Colorguard. In addition to her extracurriculars, part-time job and her IB coursework, Delaney plays Varsity Tennis for CCHS and volunteers with numerous organizations such as the Animal Medical Center of Frederick County and Wolf Trap Animal Rescue. She also volunteered her time to help teach a Spanish class at the high school. She plans to attend Roanoke College in the fall double-majoring in Pre-Veterinary Medicine and Spanish. While there Delaney will play Women’s Division III tennis. Delaney’s education and career goals include becoming a licensed translator and attending Veterinary school to get her Doctorate in Zoological Medicine.
Anna Hornbaker
Anna Hornbaker is the Interact Club president, Student Council vice president and a member of National Honor Society and Health Occupations Students of America(HOSA). She is also captain of the varsity softball team. She enjoys taking a variety of challenging classes at the high school with a focus on science classes and hopes to one day be a dermatologist. Outside of school, she works as a Child Care Aide for the Clarke County After-School program through Clarke County Parks and Recreation. Next year, Anna will attend Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, NC to major in Biochemistry with a minor in Spanish as well as play for the softball team.
Gabriel Ignacio
Gabriel Ignacio moved to Clarke County in his third grade year. Since then he has become an active member of his local Scout Troop as an Eagle Scout, a member of the Student Council Administration for Clarke County High School, and the Robotics team Programming Department Lead. Gabriel also participates in the Chess Club and Scholastic Bowl team. He loves camping and hiking as well as playing video games.
Sydney Kelble
Sydney Kelble is a Senior and IB Diploma Candidate at Clarke County High School. She serves as President of the National Art Honors Society, Senior Class Vice President, and served as Junior Class Treasurer last year. She is also an active member of CCHS’s Chapter of the National Honor Society and the Environmental Club, and dedicates time towards service endeavors through both of those clubs. She believes that the aesthetic beauty of art and the intrinsic values of the environment should be experienced by all, and gears her community service efforts towards these ideals. Her most recent endeavor entailed leading the creation of a tri-panel mural that will be featured in high school, in an effort to leave a legacy of art in her direct community. Aside from these extracurriculars, her additional time after school is primarily spent in the Blue Ridge Studio for the Performing Arts, where she enjoys Advanced Classes in Classical Ballet, Pointe, Tap, Modern, and Jazz dance styles. Next year, she will be attending
Columbia University in the City of New York. She currently plans on pursuing either a career in Journalism, or Environmental Law, and intends to major in English, and minor in Columbia’s Art History/Visual Arts program.
The scholarship is being judged by a 5-person committee of local community members. This year the committee members are:
Mayor Jay Arnold
Mayor Arnold has been serving on the Berryville Town Council as Vice-Mayor since 2006 and has been Mayor since 2020. He is a lifelong resident of Berryville and graduated from Clarke County High School 1977. He is a Life Member of Volunteer John H. Enders Fire Company & Rescue Squad and also volunteers with Berryville Main Street with special events.
Matthew Bass
Matt Bass grew up in Clarke County, graduating from Clarke County High School before attending college at the University of Virginia and later earning his law degree from the University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clarke School of Law. But while he is a lawyer with Winchester-based Harrison & Johnston, PLC on most days, Matt is also an elected member of the Clarke County Board of Supervisors, representing the Berryville District, where he lives with wife Kelbi and children Sadie and Greyson. Matt’s hobbies include golfing, coaching his kids’ sports, producing music, and writing children’s books.
Lauren McKay Cummings
Lauren Cummings is a Communications Strategist with Navy Federal Credit Union where she manages internal communications projects. Prior to joining Navy Federal in May 2022, Lauren served as Executive Director of the Northern Shenandoah Valley Substance Abuse Coalition for more than six years. She graduated from James Madison University in 2005 and spent nearly a decade working as a television reporter, producer and anchor. Lauren is a lifelong resident of the Northern Shenandoah Valley and graduate of Clarke County High School.
Marianne Schmidt
Marianne Schmidt is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Bank of Clarke. Prior to joining the Bank in 2022, Ms. Schmidt spent 25 years on Wall Street, holding numerous marketing leadership positions at J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and most recently, Folio Financial, which was acquired by Goldman Sachs. She has a B.S. in Russian from Georgetown University and a M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University. A New Jersey native, Ms. Schmidt and her fiancé David live on a farm near Hancock, MD.
Suzanne “Suni” Mackall
Born in Washington D.C. and raised in Fairfax County, Virginia, Suni was a standout athlete at Robinson High School. She went on to attend the University of Virginia School of Law, where she became the first female Head Commissioner of the law school’s North Grounds Softball League. Post-law school, Suni joined Cummings and Lockwood in Stamford, Connecticut, serving as a litigation associate. In 1998, she was appointed by the 26th Judicial Circuit judges as the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Clarke County, succeeding Geoffrey Cole. Suni held this position from 1998 until her retirement in March 2017. During her tenure, she successfully prosecuted over 15 homicide cases, numerous vehicular manslaughter cases, high-value white-collar embezzlement cases, thousands of DUIs, misdemeanors, and a significant number of drug cases. She currently is a private defense attorney. Outside of her professional life, Suni is a mother of three, an avid US Masters competitive swimmer and an amateur playwright.
The Clarke County Education Foundation, established in 1991, is an independent public charity dedicated to promoting, expanding, and augmenting the educational opportunities for students and staff in the Clarke County Public Schools, by generating private support and involvement to enhance these publicly-maintained services. The CCEF has provided more than $3.5 million in student scholarships, teacher grants, system demonstration grants, and donor-defined projects through a combination of fund-raising and endowment income since its inception. For more information visit www.ccefinc.org
For more information regarding this scholarship, The Rosemont Leadership Award, how to donate to this fund or information regarding the CCEF, please contact Beth Williams, Clarke County Education Foundation Executive Director, at 540-955-6103 or ccefinc.berryville@gmail.com.
