AMHS Scholarship Winners for 2025
By Ray LaVerghetta, Immediate Past President and AMHS Scholarship Committee Chairman
As most of us know, every year the AMHS awards scholarships to two outstanding students who have excelled academically and have shown a strong interest in Italy and Italian culture. This year the pool of applicants consisted of perhaps the most accomplished and committed students in recent memory. As a result, the AMHS Scholarship Committee faced the daunting challenge of selecting just two applicants from this group of extremely impressive candidates. It is no exaggeration to state that all of this year’s applicants were worthy of a scholarship. Unfortunately, our available funds allow us to award only two. After careful reflection and discussion over the month of April, the Committee settled on the following students: Ella Ferbert of the University of Maryland at College Park and Gianna Yerkes of Georgetown University.
Ella Ferbert is a rising senior at Maryland, where she is majoring in Public Policy and minoring in Italian language and culture. A resident of Maryland, she traces her family’s origin to the regions of Toscana, Lazio and Puglia. Gianna Yerkes, who is from California, will be starting her sophomore year this fall at Georgetown University. Her major is Business and Global Affairs and her minor is Italian. Her family roots are in the regions of Calabria, Basilicata, and Campania.
The AMHS awards help promising students afford the educational opportunities that will allow them to progress in their chosen fields of study and deepen their connection with Italy. We hope to meet these outstanding students at one of our upcoming meetings, at which time they will express their gratitude to the Society in person. In the meantime, we present below their letters of thanks for the awards.
Ella Ferbert
Thank you letter from Ella Ferbert:
Dear Abruzzo and Molise Heritage Society:
I am writing to express my extreme gratitude for the generous scholarship you awarded me. Over the past three years, I have been lucky enough to study Italian Language and Culture at the University of Maryland. While learning to speak Italian with the support of amazing professors like Dr. Mirella Vaglio, I have grown an even stronger appreciation for my heritage. My Nonno was originally from Lecce. He immigrated to New York as a young man, leaving behind four siblings in Italy to find work and support his family. He worked tirelessly to build a successful Italian restaurant, La Riserva, in Larchmont, becoming a testament to the resilience and determination that define our heritage. As such, receiving the Abruzzo and Molise Heritage Society Scholarship is a testament to that same determination he instilled in me. Though he is no longer with us, I know he would be thrilled for me to have received this honor. This scholarship makes my dream of studying abroad in Italy a reality this fall. I will be studying in Perugia, only a train ride away from my family in Rome and Siena. This generous scholarship will allow me to fully embrace the educational and cultural opportunities in Perugia with fewer financial constraints. Thank you again for helping me attain a lifelong dream of studying abroad in Italy, where I can honor my heritage, further improve my Italian speaking, and grow as a student. I am eternally grateful for the support that your society gives to students of Italian heritage in the DC area. I am excited to become a more active member of the AMHS Society when I return in Spring 2026, and I look forward to meeting everyone. Grazie mille per questa borsa di studio.
Distinti saluti,
Ella Ferbert
Gianna Yerkes
Thank you letter from Gianna Yerkes:
Dear Members of the Abruzzo and Molise Heritage Society,
My name is Gianna Yerkes, and I am deeply honored to be a recipient of your scholarship for the 2025-2026 academic year. I am a rising sophomore at Georgetown University, pursuing a dual degree in Business and Global Affairs with a minor in Italian. On campus, I’m actively involved in Georgetown Rotaract, Catholic Ministry, and, of course, Circolo Italiano, our lively Italian club. I was born and raised in California, but my paternal and maternal great-grandparents came from Basilicata, Calabria, and Campania. While my entire family takes pride in our Italian heritage, it was my Pappy who instilled in me a true passion for our cultural immersion and multi-generational connection. Every December, he organizes and hosts our family’s annual Feast of the Seven Fishes, an event that taught me the importance and beauty of celebrating our traditions and blessings with those we love. In recent years, we’ve also built an extensive family tree, and have connected with distant relatives through social media, who I hope to meet in person one day. Pappy’s love and excitement for Italy and our family is what inspired me to learn Italian and, hopefully, study abroad in Bologna next fall. I could not be more grateful for the generosity and support from the Abruzzo and Molise Heritage Society for a gift that allows me to continue studying what I love. Organizations like yours are so valuable in connecting generations of Italian-Americans and granting young people like myself the opportunity to nurture our roots while growing academically, professionally, and personally. As a daughter of two public school teachers, I appreciate the value of accessible, quality education and would like to extend my deepest gratitude to everyone that has made this scholarship possible.
Cordiali saluti,
Gianna Yerkes
Fall 2025