The Ruby Rutnik Scholarship Fund has announced that two recent graduates of the Gifft Hill School have won scholarships for the 2023-24 school year.
Malena del Olmo and Gabrielle “Gabby” Glabach will each receive an award of $2,500 towards their college tuition as they begin their first years at college in the States.
Honored as the valedictorian of her class, Malena del Olmo is planning to attend Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, where she will enroll as a pre-med student. “I’ve always had a thing for the sciences. My teacher at Gifft Hill School, Chris “Mr. D” Dunlap, has inspired me to study biology and chemistry.”
Malena said her father has also piqued her interest in the sciences. “My dad is a veterinarian; since I was a kid, he’s always told me fun facts about biology.”
Her parents, Alfredo and Veronica del Olmo, originally from Argentina, now operate a successful landscaping company on St. John.
Malena said she chose Sacred Heart partly so that she could play tennis on a Division 1 team. This week, she is traveling to El Salvador with other members of the V.I. Olympic Team to compete in the Central American and Caribbean Games. Later this summer, she will represent the Virgin Islands in a Billie Jean King Cup tournament in Panama.
Describing herself as “very competitive,” Malena said the best advice she received recently was “not to take things so seriously. I was always considered a perfectionist,” she said. “Now I want to get things done, but enjoy the journey.”
Although she has a strong interest in psychology, Gabby Glabach said she hasn’t decided on a major when she goes to Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, with her twin sister Alexandra. She said the best advice she’s received is, “Be open to all ideas and opportunities.”
Gabby said she chose to attend Roger Williams partly because she was familiar with the area; after Hurricane Irma, her family left St. John and went back to live in Massachusetts for several years. Her parents, Gina and Rob Glabach, eventually decided they missed St. John too much to remain on the East Coast and moved back to St. John They now both work at Lovango Resort and Beach Club.
Bristol is a coastal city, and Gabby said being near the ocean is something she values from her many years on St. John.
This summer, she will continue to work with the wait staff at the Lime Inn restaurant. Her interests include jewelry making. During the pandemic, she and her sister sold jewelry that they designed and made out of crystal beads and wire.
The Ruby Rutnik Scholarship Fund was created 26 years ago to honor the memory of Ruby Rutnik, who was a senior at American University when she died in a car accident in 1996. Heartbroken by their tragedy but resilient in spirit, her family organized a softball tournament in 1997 for female high school students throughout the Virgin Islands as a way to fund the scholarship.
In 2014, the Rutnik family decided to end the tournaments and use the funds already raised to establish an endowment through the Gifft Hill School on St. John. Since its inception, the fund has awarded a total of more than $199,000 to more than 60 recipients.
The scholarship is open to any young woman who has resided on St. John for at least five years.
Those wishing to contribute to the scholarship fund are asked to make their checks payable to Gifft Hill School, noting RRSF on the bottom of the check, and mail it to GHS, PO Box 1657, St. John, VI 00831.
