Kirschbaum-Fitzsimmons Scholarships awarded April 8

L-R: Kay Pence, county chair, Grace Ludwig, scholarship winner, Devan Riberdy, scholarship winner, and Toby Paone, scholarship committee chair.

The Scott County Democrats have awarded two Kirschbaum-Fitzsimmons scholarships worth $1000 each to Grace Ludwig from Pleasant Valley High School and Devan Riberdy from North High School.

Grace, Bettendorf, plans to attend New York University and major in marketing and journalism. During the 2024 election season, Grace managed the TikTok social media app for the Scott County Democrats.  She was also involved in the voter registration drive for seniors at Pleasant Valley High School in 2024. 

Grace said, “One of my proudest achievements was advocating for voter registration information at my school.  I worked hard to ensure that students had easy access to the resources they needed to register to vote.  I successfully advocated for voting registration to be included in high school curriculum.”

Devan, Blue Grass, plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and major in chemistry.  Devan has been a volunteer for LULAC since she was 12 years old.  She has also been involved in many band activities, including being a drum major and show choir pit manager.  

Devan said, “I volunteered for the Democratic Party's Trivia Night on February 8, 2025. This experience allowed for my meeting of many different people all supporting the same cause! My assigned task was to collect and distribute trivia answer sheets. Though a simple task, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Democratic Party and I plan to volunteer again in the future."”

The awards were presented to the girls at the Scott County Democrats Central Committee meeting on Tuesday, April 8.