Four Local Students Earn Middleburg Library Advisory Board Scholarships

Four outstanding Middleburg area students have been awarded college scholarship funds for the 2025-26 school year by the Middleburg Library Advisory Board (MLAB). Three are graduating high school seniors and a fourth is entering her sophomore year in college.

Daniel Kwon of The Plains, a senior at Wakefield School, America Arellano, a senior from Middleburg attending Loudoun Valley High School, and Yanira Cortes, a senior from Upperville also at Loudoun Valley, were each awarded $5,000 Charles Plante Book Scholarships to continue their studies.

The Plante Scholarship was established by the MLAB in 2019 in honor of Charles L. Plante of Middleburg,  who passed away in 2016 at the age of 84. Only current high school students were eligible for the Plante scholarship.

Beatrice VanSant, a dean’s list student at the University of Georgia and a Middleburg resident was named the recipient of the second annual Eura Lewis Memorial Scholarship.

The $3,000 scholarship is named for Eura Lee Hudgins Lewis of Middleburg, who passed away in 2022 at the age of 92.  She was a long-time member of the advisory board, a devoted school teacher for 40 years and a former Middleburg Town Council member.

The scholarship winners will be honored at the MLAB’s July 22 board meeting at the Middleburg Library.

Daniel Kwon attended Wakefield as a prestigious Archwood Scholarship recipient awarded by the school. He was an outstanding student and plans to attend Marymount University, where he hopes to study economics. He was active in a number of extra-curricular activities, captained the squash and golf teams, volunteered at a local food pantry and now caddies at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.

America Arellano was a member of the National Honor Society, volunteered at a number of Middleburg Community Center events and had several part time jobs, including work at the Red Fox Inn. She will attend Northern Virginia Community College in the fall and will focus on international humanitarian studies.

Yanira Campos Cortes also was a fine student and said among her most memorable volunteer experiences was working at a local senior citizen center helping residents make Christmas crafts. She also did part-time work at IV Technologies, where she fixed, tested and calibrated medical equipment. She will attend Laurel Ridge Community College and will study nursing.

Beatrice VanSant was selected to attend the Virginia Governor’s School in Agriculture at Virginia tech between her junior and senior years in high school. She’s now in a rigorous science-oriented program at the University of Georgia with a goal of attending veterinarian school and focusing on equine surgery or reproduction.         

Eura Lewis, a long-time teacher in the Fauquier County public schools, served on the Board of the MLAB for many years. She was extremely active in both her church and her community and served on many missions and boards, including the Middleburg Town Council, where she served for 12 years. While running for local office her slogan was “Making a Difference,” and everything she was involved in centered on that theme.

Charles Plante devoted his professional life to promoting public causes, especially for the infirmed. He was most proud of his roles in expanding Medicare, the End Stage Renal Disease program (ESRD), the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, his role in the founding of United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), and his life long support of neurosurgery.

He also served on the MLAB for many years.  The scholarship named in his honor is intended to recognize his lasting legacy to those who intersected with him and the millions who benefitted from his quiet good works.