Lighthouse Guild has awarded a total of $195,000 in scholarships to 17 legally blind students from across the U.S. who will be entering college or graduate school in fall 2025. The awards recognize academic achievement and perseverance, helping students make a successful transition to higher education.
The Lighthouse Guild Scholarship Program, which began in 2005, has awarded more than $3 million in financial support to legally blind students.
The 2025 scholarship recipients will attend a range of competitive institutions, including Harvard College, the University of Notre Dame, Case Western Reserve University, and Cornell University. Awards are merit based and range from $2,500 to $40,000.
- Lighthouse Guild Scholar ($40,000): Aubree Lautenschuetz (Plattsburgh, NY), Case Western Reserve University
- Visual Aid Volunteers of Florida Scholarship ($12,500): Andrew Feng (Boca Raton, FL), University of Notre Dame
- Daniel M. Callahan Memorial Scholarship ($10,000): Andrea Hernandez (Laredo, TX), University of Texas at Austin
- Neil S. Patel Memorial Scholarship ($2,500): MaKenzie Love (Commercial Point, OH), Miami University
The following are recipients of $10,000 scholarships:
- Andrew Gillespie (Loveland, OH), Purdue University
- Daniel Gunderson (Chicago, IL), Washington University in St. Louis
- Toban Harnish (Lebanon, PA), Messiah University
- Elliot Lapp (Atlanta, GA), University of Georgia
- Elektra Larson (Washington, D.C.), Georgia Institute of Technology
- Madeline Major (Plymouth, MN), University of Minnesota Twin Cities
- Kaelyn McColl (Chicago, IL), Harvard College
- Sid Miller (Cedar Grove, WI), Milwaukee Area Technical College
- Brooke Petro (Leawood, KS), Creighton University
- Zoe Tseng (Tinley Park, IL), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Quinn Wagner (Reading, PA), Cornell University
- Lucy Ye (Flushing, NY), Queens College, City University of New York
- Amanie Riley (Graduate Student, New York, NY), Dominican University of New York