Knott Scholar Council

The Knott Scholar Council supports the engagement of all Knott scholars, aimed to foster relationships among each other and to carry forward leadership skills and service to the community.

The group is composed of representatives from all constituencies of the Knott Scholarship Funds community: current scholars, alumni scholars, and scholar parents. The Council gathers four times during the academic year to plan activities for Knott scholars coordinated by fellow Knott scholars.

The Council encourages Knott scholars and family members to share their time, talent, and treasure through an annual partnership with a school in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The partnership features a supplies collection, book drive, and a clean-up and gardening project at the school. All this outreach greatly benefits others in the community and centers around service, one of the hallmarks of a Knott scholarship.

The Knott Scholar Guide Program was recently established to foster community and support among secondary scholars.  Each young scholar is matched with an older scholar Guide based on common interests and these pairs are then combined to form scholar families.  Several community-building events are planned for the 2021-2022 school year, including Halloween Kahoot night in late October.

If you are interested in learning more about the Guides program, please click here.

Knott Scholar Service Day

The Knott Scholar Council enthusiastically welcomed more than 100 participants – including 46 scholars – to its annual Service Day on Saturday morning September 18, 2021.  This year the activity was held on the campuses of St. Michael-St. Clement Catholic School and St. Michael the Archangel Church, both located adjacent to each other in northeast Baltimore City, and the 2020-2021 Knott Scholar Partner organization.

Knott Scholar Service Day 2021 was a tremendous beautification effort that lasted four hours and accomplished so much pride and reward.  Many gardens were weeded and replanted with landscaping graciously donated by Green Fields Nursery, owned by Knott scholar alumni parents Jim and Kathleen McElroy.  All the exterior steps, sidewalks, and curbs were swept and cleaned.  Both the school’s principal Mr. Paul Kristoff and the church’s pastor, Friar Timothy Dore, OFM Conv., expressed their sincere gratitude for the work by our group!  “Thank you. The families were amazing. Can we just be partners forever!!!,” Mr. Kristoff expressed the following week.

2021-2022 Partnership

Mother Mary Lange Catholic School

If you are interested in learning more about activities for our partner school, or are interested in joining the Council, please click here.

The Knott Scholar Council welcomes interested scholars and family members to join its team, or to lend a hand at an upcoming event!

Current Council Members:

Harry Benjamin	Mount Saint Mary’s University ‘98
Kelly Dryden Brown	Notre Dame of Maryland University ‘85
Jon Cupp	Mount Saint Mary’s University ‘93
Joe Ecker	St. Ursula School ’07 and Loyola Blakefield ‘11
Samantha Farley	Notre Dame Preparatory School ‘23
Alexander Johnson	Mount Saint Joseph High School ‘24
Ben Langenbach	Immaculate Conception School ’20 and Loyola Blakefield ‘24
Samantha Otazo	Notre Dame Preparatory School ‘23
Scott Pawley	School of the Incarnation ’20 and Calvert Hall College High School ‘24
Reilly Riemer	Notre Dame Preparatory School ‘22
Mia Scharper	Notre Dame of Maryland University ‘91
Laney Schmugge	Maryvale Preparatory School ‘22
Ben Sontag	Calvert Hall College High School ‘21
Madison Villarba	St. Joseph School, Fullerton ‘19 and Notre Dame Preparatory School ‘23