This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Bolivian-Born Waterford Student Awarded Latin Arts Scholarship Through Community Foundation

Award Marks First From Gales Ferry-based Latin Network For The Visual Arts

A beautiful little girl with dark curly hair came into this world 18 years ago in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The family into which she was born could not care for her and put her up for adoption. A loving American family adopted this baby girl when she was three weeks old.

And so begins the story of Waterford’s Claire Howard, adapted from the essay she submitted with her application for a scholarship sponsored by the Gales Ferry-based Latin Network for the Visual Arts. She won the $1,000 scholarship administered by the and will apply it to her education this fall at the University of Hartford.

Jennifer O’Brien, Community Foundation program director, said Howard’s interest and experience in art created a perfect match for the LNVA scholarship. Overall, she said, the foundation distributed about $280,000 this year in 76 scholarships benefitting 160 students.

Find out what's happening in New Londonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Howard’s art interests focus on photography and painting. Before beginning her senior year in high school last summer, she received college credit for a photography course at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Mass., where she learned and applied techniques to advance her photography skills.

She compiled a photography portfolio that she called one of her prized possessions.

Find out what's happening in New Londonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I just loved the pictures,” Howard said. “I take great pride in what I do. I like how you can express one moment in a picture.”

The scholarship marks the first given by the Latin Network for the Visual Arts to a student who comes from a Latin background and is pursuing visual arts in college. The group’s mission is to enrich the southeastern Connecticut community through visual arts created by contemporary Latin artists whose roots lie in countries where the Romance languages are spoken. It has produced five major international exhibits at the Alex von Schlippe Gallery of Art at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point campus in Groton and sponsored guided tours in multiple languages to more than 2,000 area elementary, middle and high school students.

LNVA President Gastón Daumy said the organization was delighted to award its first scholarship to Howard.

“The LNVA wishes her great success in her studies and hopes that this financial contribution will help in the pursuit of her creative goals.”

Howard attended Waterford High School until her junior year, when she switched to the Academy of the Holy Family in the Baltic section of Sprague to pursue her diploma in a tailored, more focused, atmosphere in classes of five to eight students.  

She graduated in June with nine other girls and said she enjoyed the cultural variety of her classmates who hail from places such as Hong Kong, Korea, Mexico, Mississippi and New York City.  

Howard just began a pre-law program at the University of Hartford that will include an art class and workshops with various artists who specialize in different mediums.

“I can’t wait to take this class because I will get to experience all forms of art, as well as what I am familiar with already.”

One of her personal goals is to study for a semester in Bolivia and learn more about her culture and that of her brother, who also was adopted several years after she was, “to give back to the country that gave me life.”      

She credits her mother, Gail Heller, a former defense lawyer who worked in the New London Judicial District, as being the most influential person “in my whole entire life,” and characterized her as strong, passionate, courageous and bold.

“She’s just incredible.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?