Loomis Students Named WALKS Scholars

A handful of Loomis Chaffee students were recently rewarded for their achievements in the classroom and in the community. Three students were named WALKS scholars, and one student was named a Barnes Service Award recipient.

Windsor's Rehka Kennedy was among the WALKS scholars named. An active member of the student council, the Phage Hunters Club, and website editor for the school newspaper, The Log, Kennedy is also a high honors student. She plays softball for the Pelicans and is pursuing a career in science.

According to Loomis, the WALKS Program, which was started in 1956, supports "the enrichment of students, whose talents, commitment, and energies promise community leadership in the coming years."

WALKS, an acronym for the program's participating schools (Westminster, Avon Old Farms, Loomis Chaffee, Kingswood-Oxford and Suffield Academy), is funded by contributions made by Greater Hartford businesses and civic leaders.

Kelsey Adamson of Tolland and Kassidi Jones of West Hartford were also named WALKS scholars.

Adamson, a senior, is an honor-roll student and a three-sport athlete in soccer, basketball and track. She also volunteers at the Tolland Historical Society and Tolland Soccer Club.

Jones is a high-honors sophomore who is a member of Loomis' Concert Choir and also received a presidential award for academic achievement, according to the school. Also a three-sport athlete, Jones is a poet, dancer and painter with hopes of writing professionally.

Jay Spector, a native of Farmington, received the Barnes Service Award. Spector spends much of his time tutoring Hartford-area students as a member of the Pelican Service Organization and also works with the Special Olympics.

For the past four years, Spector has given his time to the Special Olympics, volunteering as a coach and sailing instructor in the New Haven games.