Thirty-three county residents received Bernie Awards, which are scholarship awards to help them continue their education, at The Bernie Scholarship Awards Foundation ceremony May 24 at the County Council Cafeteria in Rockville.

The awards are presented annually in honor of Bernie Tetreault, former executive director of the Housing Opportunities Commission.

“This is our 17th year. [We are] totally funded by tax deductible donations,” Joyce Siegel, a foundation volunteer said. “We received this year 53 applications and gave 33 awards.”

Winners of $1,000 scholarships were: Serenity Tyner, Watkins Mill High School in Montgomery Village; Yah Kamei, Gaithersburg High School; Sakeenah Muwwakkil, Shimaa Makkawy, Sharouk Hassan and Jeremiah Ekoja, Winston Churchill High School in Potomac; Anton Kolyabin, Seneca Valley High School in Germantown; Soo Hwang, Gaithersburg High School; Brandon Calhoun, adult studying at Montgomery College; Brenda Santana, Magruder High School in Rockville; Michael Orevba, rising senior at McDaniel College in Westminster; Naomi Orevba, Bethesda Chevy Chase High School; Fatimah Siddiqui, adult studying nursing at Prince George’s Community College; Kimberly Hanson, James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring; Melaky Misikir, adult studying nursing at Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park; Monica Littlejohn, adult studying early childhood education at Montgomery College; Ramanda Graham, Blake High School; Sandra Velalrde, adult studying at Montgomery College; Peggy Addison, adult studying business management at Walden University; Pauline Lawrence, adult studying nursing at Montgomery College; Kai Willliams, adult studying electronic health record management at Montgomery College; Jessica Lovejoy, adult studying nursing at Montgomery College; Carmen Hanna, adult studying health education at Montgomery College; Armelle Leuku, adult studying nursing at Bowie State University; Idman Guled, Clarksburg High School; Alice Jennings, adult studying human services at University of Phoenix; and Selene Bae, Blake High School.

Those who received $500 awards, all adults, are: Helen Wilson, Silver Spring; Endale Weldesenbet, Silver Spring; Hannah and Simon Akum, Germantown; Alice Benjo, Bethesda; and Antoinette Tatum, Rockville.