ISIA Education Foundation - 2005 Scholarship Recipients
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Patricia Satkiewicz ISI activities: Scholastic and community activities/achievements: Patricia (“Patty”) Satkiewicz has already discovered the value of balance in a busy life. She has learned that ice skating can serve as both a motivator and a stress-reliever. But, she adds, “while skating occupies the largest portion of my time and energy and colors many other aspects of my life, I recognize that it is not the only activity deserving of my attention.” Her favorite activities are those that combine her passion for skating with her enthusiasm for community service, such as teaching and leading tot skaters and volunteering at her rink’s annual ice shows and Halloween parties. But academics always get top ranking on her priority list, and she has never hesitated to cancel a practice session when she needed to focus on a difficult assignment in her demanding curriculum. Patty says she intends to follow this pattern of balancing skating with her other activities and spreading her focus evenly when she attends Cornell University. She graduated from Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Ill., with a 4.38 grade point average on a 4.0 scale. Kerry Murphy, skating director at Skokie Skatium, says Patty will be missed when she leaves for college: “When we were looking for someone to assist in our summer camp day care program, Patty was the first one we thought of. We needed someone who could guide children ages 6 to 12 through various on- and off-ice activities, someone who could be spontaneous and creative, and who needed very little guidance and could exemplify what we are all about as a Park District facility. We are proudly losing a great asset to our ice rink.” |
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Megan Van Berkel ISI activities: Scholastic and community activities/achievements: Last skating season was Megan Van Berkel’s most triumphant: She passed her Freestyle 6 test, came close to landing her double toe loop and began the transition from skater to coach at the Wayne C. Kennedy Recreational Complex in St. Louis. She coaches Tot 1 through Gamma and serves as both co-captain and assistant coach for the Platinum Blade Brigade Synchronized Skating Team. She hopes to coach a synchronized team in the future. “Skating has taught me many values I do not believe I could obtain elsewhere,” says Megan, who graduated from Lindbergh High School with a 3.978 grade point average based on a 4.0 scale. “Skating has given me a sense of teamwork, dedication and the leadership I need to succeed in life and in skating. It has also taught me to set goals for myself and to work hard to achieve them. I have worked hard to live up to the ISI Skater’s Creed.” Megan’s goal-oriented approach to life has helped her succeed in figure skating as well as in school, says her coach, Brigid Lamear: “This is a person who is not satisfied with the ordinary but finds the extraordinary in each task and situation. Megan’s leadership of her synchro team and her dedication to teaching and education have proven to me that she is a person who will achieve excellence in whatever she chooses to pursue.” Her next pursuit is a degree from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, which requires five years of intensive course work, a sixth year of rotations and possibly a seventh-year internship. |
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Bethanee Bemis ISI activities: Scholastic and community activities/achievements: Ice skating is a way of life for Bethanee Bemis, who has been skating since age 6 and plans to continue sharpening her skills with the Pentagon Inter-Collegiate Synchronized Skating Team at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she plans to major in anthropology. “Skating has given me more than physical benefits,” Bethanee notes. “The perseverance and emotional strength that I learned on the ice has served me in my life off-ice as well. I’ve learned to perform under pressure and I’ve also learned that sometimes you can only do your best. Sometimes you place high, sometimes you place low, but the game isn’t always about placing first.”Bethanee graduated from Hereford High School in Parkton, Md. with a 3.81 grade point average. She has demonstrated wide-ranging interests, maturity and leadership skills through such activities as Student Council, volunteer projects and helping to plan and execute an International Thinking Day for her local Girl Scout community. “I can always depend on her help with any project that comes up, and she has always volunteered her time when, all too often nowadays, other girls are too busy to help out,” says Claire Jones, Bethanee’s Girl Scout leader. In addition to receiving high marks for academics and her dedicated, independent work ethic, Bethanee is known for her ability to relate well to individuals of all ages. Jackie Eliasberg, manager and skating director at Northwest Family Sports Center in Baltimore, recalls an incident in which Bethanee helped evacuate 13 stranded children during a sudden summer flood: “She kept them calm and safe from harm until their parents were allowed through the flooded areas to retrieve them. I was very confident with her help.” |
