Dear ARCS MWC Members,

Jane and I hope you are enjoying your summer holidays. We’re looking forward to getting together soon to hear about your summer and to kick off the 2025-2026 scholar year.

Be sure to save Sun, Sept 14 for our Fall Membership Meeting where the ARCS Light will be announced and we will approve the budget. A special thank you to Lorraine Nordlinger for hosting this event.

This year we will honor 19 graduate and 2 undergraduate scholars at the annual SAR, which will be held at the National Academy of Sciences on Oct 23. Over the summer the scholars have shared wonderful notes of gratitude with our Chapter after receiving their award letters. All five University visits have been scheduled for spring of 2026. Please plan to attend at least one. Thank you to VP University Relations Michelle Francis!

We’re pleased to have current member and scholar alumna, Dr. Kristin Bloschock, as this year’s SAR keynote speaker. We hope to surpass last year’s number of 120 attendees, so bring potential members and donors to see what our outstanding scholars are doing. If you would like to be a sponsor for the event, please reach out to Jane Riddle. Sponsors will help us keep the ticket price to $75. 

A big shoutout to co-VPs of Membership Hilary Sparrell and Melissa Rhoads for facilitating the annual member renewals and to Beth Czaban for updating the Blue Book!

The Eagle Award Ceremony will be held again at the Army and Navy Club in the Main Dining Room on May 1, 2026. We’re honored to celebrate ARCS MWC member, The Honorable Deborah Wince-Smith, President and CEO of the Council of Competitiveness, as our Eagle awardee.  

Patty Sparrell, Elli Nesbitt and Julie Hohl represented ARCS MWC at the National Board meeting in Seattle. They brought back information on development, fundraising, scholar alumni and the newest information from the Organizational Growth Committee about the future of having National Scholars. Jill Bray, 2025-2027 ARCS National President, will be joining us for the Eagle Award Ceremony.

Don’t forget to invite your friends who might like to join our chapter or those ARCS Friends who would like to donate to support our mission to any of our events.

We’re looking forward to a great year! If you have ideas or suggestions, please reach out to us, mwcpresident@arcsfoundation.org.

~ Julie Hohl and Jane Riddle, ARCS-MWC Co-Presidents