BMS Announces Scholarship Recipients

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Music School announced the 2024-2025 Talent and Merit Scholarship recipients. Students who are accepted into the Talent & Merit Scholarship Program benefit from up to 100 percent tuition assistance. 
 
This year, BMS awarded almost $17,000 in Talent and Merit Scholarships, and continues to take Need-Based Financial Aid Scholarship applications on a rolling basis. The BMS Scholarship Program, which includes the Talent & Merit Scholarships and the rolling Need-Based Financial Aid Scholarships, remains integral to its mission of allowing students to learn and grow in the Berkshire County region without financial constraints.
 
The 2024 – 2025 Talent & Merit Scholarship Recipients: 
 
Tracy R. Wilson Scholarship – Alyviana Manion, piano 
 
Helen and Milton Fink Memorial Scholarship - Artois Sancho, piano 
 
Gia Cox Caird Scholarship - Zoe-Ruth Brizen, piano 
 
England/Scott Family Fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation - Nina Rather, violin 
 
Sara Alberti-Jencks Scholarship - James Ryan & Sai Meesala, voice 
 
Paul Houston Memorial Scholarship - Shira Weiner, guitar 
 
Daniel Pearl Scholarship - Destiny Tetlow, flute 
 
The Chopin Scholarship - Madeline Davis, piano 
 
The Paderweski Scholarship - Anderson Durfee, piano 
 
 
Honorable Mentions: 
 
Rose Garrison, cello 
 
Bernardo Martinez, saxophone 
 
Sagun Meesala, flute 
 
Calliope Bednarski, piano 
 
Clementine Delsignore, electric bass  
 
Matias Chimarro, charango 
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Wahconah Students Join Statewide 'SOS' Call for Rural School Funding

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff

DALTON, Mass. — Students at Wahconah Regional High School are urging the state to fully fund Rural School Aid that supports essential services that shape their future.
 
Rural districts across the state participated in Rural and Declining Enrollment Schools Week of Action to insist Beacon Hill fully fund rural aid at $60 million. 
 
Schools across Massachusetts sent their pleas for aid to lawmakers through letter-writing campaigns, sign-making, and coordinated gatherings where students and educators formed the letters "SOS."

Wahconah students did something different — they created an educational video detailing the need for increased funding for rural schools with the school's music teacher Brian Rabuse, who edited the video, Assistant Superintendent Aaron Robb said. 

The advocacy efforts move the issue from spreadsheets to show the human cost of a funding formula previously described as "remarkably wrong." 
 
During an interview with iBerkshires, students expressed how districts without rural aid would have to make reductions in world language programing, mental health support, extracurricular opportunities, and other areas they find essential. 
 
"Our students deserve the same quality of education as any child in Massachusetts, regardless of their ZIP code," Superintendent Mike Henault said in apress release.
 
"The week of action is an opportunity for our communities to come together and make it clear to Beacon Hill that the status quo is no longer acceptable." 
 
Rural schools attempt to create the same quality education as urban and suburban areas while balancing high fixed costs of transportation and operations of geographically large, low-population districts.
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