Four Worcester eighth graders learned this week that their path to college just became a little more attainable, and a lot more public.
The WooSox Foundation announced Thursday that four Worcester Public Schools students have been selected as members of the WooSox Scholars Class of 2026, each receiving a $10,000 college scholarship through a program that has become one of the franchise’s signature community initiatives.
The students, which were chosen from a pool of more than 1,700 Worcester eighth graders, will be honored on the field at Polar Park before the Worcester Red Sox host the Buffalo Bisons on June 6.
This year’s scholarship recipients are Jainiemar Torres-Morales of Burncoat Middle School and Prince Martinez-Carlos, Dieunayson Georges and Brielle Nyame-Addo, all of Worcester East Middle School.
The awards continue a program launched shortly after the WooSox arrived in Worcester and rooted in a scholarship model first developed decades earlier by former Red Sox and WooSox executive Larry Lucchino and longtime baseball executive Dr. Charles Steinberg.
Since the WooSox Scholars program began in 2021, the WooSox Foundation has committed $240,000 in scholarship support to 24 Worcester students, according to the team’s announcement.
The scholarship funds are paid directly to colleges for tuition and books once students matriculate, provided they maintain strong academic and citizenship records.
This year’s selection process began with the entire Worcester Public Schools eighth-grade class, which includes more than 1,700 students. Worcester school faculty narrowed the pool to 86 applicants before WooSox Foundation officials selected 18 finalists and conducted interviews to determine the final scholarship recipients.
Foundation officials said the finalist pool was so strong that the organization also selected a record eight WooSox Foundation Fellows, who will each receive $1,000 scholarships.
Those fellows are Gloria Zuzi and Maria Perez-Hernandez of Burncoat Middle School; Danylo Kolpakov and Breshna Zaitune of Forest Grove Middle School; Chrissy Grant and King Asante of Worcester East Middle School; and Wilmary Beriguete-Mejia and Lev Matushchak of Sullivan Middle School.
The scholarship program traces its roots to Baltimore in the early 1990s, when Lucchino asked Steinberg to create a defining community initiative tied to baseball. Similar scholarship programs later expanded through the San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, Pawtucket Red Sox and eventually the WooSox.
According to the announcement, more than 800 students have now been named Padres Scholars, Red Sox Scholars, PawSox Scholars or WooSox Scholars across the various programs.
Thursday’s announcement included surprise visits to Burncoat and Worcester East middle schools, where WooSox Foundation staff arrived in the organization’s Care-A-Van to notify students in person.
“Surprising the four members of the WooSox Scholars Class of 2026 at their schools today was a great reminder of what this program is all about,” Emerson White, the WooSox’ manager of community relations and the WooSox Foundation, said in the announcement.
“Each of these students has already shown incredible resilience, and their stories are truly inspiring,” White said. “We are so lucky that the WooSox Foundation gets to be a small part of their bright futures.”
