Seniors awarded Delaney Doherty Memorial Scholarships

Eleven seniors, including six at Manhattan schools, were awarded scholarships through the Delaney Doherty Memorial Scholarship Foundation.

Awardees at Manhattan High School included Teddy Simser, Grace Johnson, Mason Reynolds, and Kate Yager. Manhattan Christian School recipients were Blaise Bolich and Aubrey Hofman.

The scholarship fund was established to honor the memory of 17-year-old Delaney Doherty, who passed in August 2023 due to a vehicular crash. She was slated to be senior class president at Manhattan High School. The driver accused of causing the crash is being prosecuted in Gallatin County, and the DUI case was pending as of Wednesday.

Five students in Butte also were awarded scholarships.

"We expanded into Butte this year for the first time," wrote Mark Doherty, who is on the foundation's board and is the father of Delaney Doherty. "It’s my hometown, and both of those schools and the wonderful people of Butte have held fundraisers to help raise $ for our foundation, so we wanted to give back."

Two of the Manhattan High School seniors each received $2,500 from the foundation, and two others were each awarded $1,000. The Butte students and those at Manhattan Christian each received $1,000. The monies can be used for a U.S.-accredited training, licensing, certification program, or institution of higher education.

To receive the scholarships, the students submitted essays that included information on who they are, their high school activities and sports, and community service and volunteering. The students also described what kind of legacies they want to leave behind or how they want to be remembered. They also provided two letters of recommendation: one from a staff member at their school and one from someone in their community.

The scholarship committee and foundation board members combed diligently through all the applications to rank the applicants and choose winners, Mark Doherty told Belgrade News.

“We get their transcripts for grades, too,” he wrote. “We are looking for well-rounded kids who get good grades, do good things for their communities, do what they can to make this world a better place, and go out of their way to be good to others. These encompass Delaney’s qualities and what she stood for. We got 53 apps between the 4 schools, so it’s a lot of time and effort to go through all of the applications, but at the same time, that is the best part. You get to learn a lot about these kids and how amazing they are. It literally restores my faith in humanity.”