Marlborough – The Marlborough Historical Society announced that its 2014 high school scholarship will be twice the size of prior years and will include projects focused on the creation and distribution of local history through Facebook, Pinterest, Flickr, YouTube, HistoryPin, WhatWasThere, Twitter, Wikipedia, SlideShare, Scribd, Google Maps, SketchUp, and other web-based tools and platforms.
The scholarship is open to any high school senior residing in Marlborough regardless of the school he or she attends. Proposals for projects for this year's scholarship are due Monday, Jan. 20.
“Our 2014 scholarship program encourages students to learn more about our city's history and to spread that knowledge and enthusiasm through the most popular and powerful communication tools available today,” said Janet Licht, president of the Marlborough Historical Society. “By expanding beyond a written research report, we hope to tap into the content creation and curation skills of students to reach new audiences, both young and old.”
For years, the society has awarded a $500 scholarship in memory of Dorothy Medill, Claudia McCarty, and Frank Valianti, who were founding members. Thanks to a generous donation, the 2014 scholarship award will be $1,000.
“We'se seen firsthand how the web and social media can help take the history of Marlborough to far more people than will ever be able to attend a presentation. One of our local historians will spend hundreds and hundreds of hours on a presentation that only 50 or 100 people are able to attend, but we'sl have literally thousands of people view the slides once they'se posted online,” Licht said.
The society has been an early innovator in the use of the web and was one of the first cities or towns in Massachusetts to put their entire historic property survey online.
The committee for this year's scholarship consists of Licht, trustees Lee Wright and Linda Rennie, and archivist Dick Cochrane.
Complete information can be found at www.historicmarlborough.org/Scholarship.html. Updates on the program will also be posted to the society's Facebook page and Twitter feed (@marlborohistory).
For more information about the Historical Society, visit www.HistoricMarlborough.org.
