Neel Mehta
John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory was chosen to receive April 2 the Howard County’s Volunteer of the Year Award for its all-volunteer college preparation program launched in 2009.
Will Roncal and Karla Roncal, the husband-wife duo that spearheaded the College Prep Program, received the award at a ceremony at the county’s George Howard Building, the company announced.
“This award should really go to all of our volunteers who make the program possible. Through their dedication, we are able to give more individualized attention to each student, and the more volunteers we have, the more students we can reach. An important part of the program is one-on-one attention and personalized relationships that we build over time,” Will said.
The program is in partnership with the APL MESA office that supports 14 young people who want to go to college but lacks the resources to do so. Since its inception in 2009, the CPP program has seen more interest in science, technology, engineering and math careers, the release said.
In 2014, the program had 90 volunteers that rendered over 4,500 hours. John Hopkins APL also recently served its 100th student.
