By Joseph Batory

I have a dream, a song to sing

To help me cope with anything

If you see the wonder of a fairy tale

You can take the future, even if you fail

I believe in angels

Something good in everything I see

I believe in angels

When I know the time is right for me      From a song by ABBA

Upper Darby High School’s Mendenhall-Tyson Scholarship is named for two former Upper Darby School District superintendents (Hendrickson Mendenhall and John Tyson) and dates to 1928.

Since 1984, I have been a member of the Mendenhall-Tyson Scholarship Foundation Board in the Upper Darby School District (PA). During the late 1980’s and into the 1990’s,  more than one hundred thousand dollars donated in memoriam for these two deceased superintendents had been invested with the interest used to fund one annual scholarship for a top-rated Upper Darby High School graduate (about $5000.00 annually).

But then in 1998, an “angelic” event occurred when the Mendenhall Tyson Scholarship foundation assets were greatly enhanced through the generous bequest of about one million dollars from a former Upper Darby School District educator, Janice Guiesinger.

This has changed everything!

Touched by this  angelic intervention, the Mendenhall-Tyson Scholarship Fund assets have now significantly grown, launching many careers of greatness for Upper Darby High School grads.  As an example, just in  2023-2024, 15 Upper Darby High school grads will be studying at many different universities/colleges and dividing $112,000.00 in Mendenhall Tyson scholarship funding awards among them. And this scholarship award distribution  will continue year after year as these Mendenhall-Tyson scholars proceed in their higher ed programs.  Then, when some Mendenhall-Tyson scholars from Upper Darby High are annually graduated from their colleges/universities, new UDHS recipients are added to begin their university studies.

Beyond this miracle of the Mendenhall Tyson Scholarship, Upper Darby High School also has its own unique scholarship program, another angelic intervention.  On June 1, at the 2023 Upper Darby High Senior Awards night, $400,000.00+ donated by former staff, alumni, home and school associations, local businesses, many other organizations, and families and friends will be presented to numerous UDHS graduating seniors. NB—These Upper Darby High Scholarship Awards are above and beyond the many hundreds of thousands of dollars which these Upper Darby 2023 grads have already earned via grants and scholarships from their chosen universities.

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Joseph Batory is the former superintendent of schools in the Upper Darby School District (1984-1999).