2026 SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS
Meet Our 2026
"Think About What Your Are Going To Do In The Future" Scholarship Winners
We at Julia’s Grace Foundation are proud to announce the winners of our 2026 Think About What You Are Going To Do in the Future scholarships.
Awarded to childhood cancer patients and their siblings, these $1,000 scholarships can be used for post-high school education or training programs.
Scholarship applicants completed essays about how childhood cancer has affected their lives and how they have used their experience to make a positive impact on others.
Zachary DelPrato
Zachary DelPrato was eight years old when his four year old brother was diagnosed with leukemia. In his beautifully written essay, Zachary touched on all of the emotions so many siblings of cancer patients seem to experience: fear, sadness and loneliness and then guilt for feeling all those completely natural reactions to a nearly four year disruption in his day to day
family life.
By the time he was in high school, Zachary had processed some of those emotions and learned a valuable lesson as he was inspired by the kindness shown his family through those
difficult years: “…I began to see that the best thing you can do when you are down is to lift someone up.”
And so he did. He became active in his school’s annual Red Cross blood drive, not only to tally up many units of blood but to educate the community about the life-saving importance of
those blood and blood products for cancer patients.
As he approaches college, Zachary plans to study biology as he is eager to explore all the ways that resulted in his brother surviving a complication-ridden case of leukemia. He’s open
to a variety of paths but he feels certain that whatever one he chooses it will in some way be related to the field of childhood cancer.
Rose Dugary
Rose Dugary was looking forward to a leisurely summer after her freshman year of high school when her mother became concerned about a symptom that led her to take Rose to the local emergency room. Within hours, she had been whisked to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where her life would be inexorably changed by a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Shehad surgery the next day.
Unfortunately, that day’s surgery wasn’t to be the only one she had to endure as she learned that her remaining ovary also had a tumor. “I realized then that I would never truly be free ofthis. Repeat scans and surgeries were just a part of my life now.”
While Rose’s essay is full of so many losses - her potential ability to have children one day, her tarnished and challenging high school years - she also experienced an important “find.” She met Dr. Pete Mattei, her surgeon. She was impressed time and again with his skill and compassion. She was able to shadow him in the operating room. That relationship inspired her to take honors biology which, in turn, led her to consider many career paths related to becoming a physician or, possibly, a genetics counselor.
While enduring many disappointments related to her cancer - including multiple surgeries and depression - Rose found her “passion project.” It’s called, fittingly, “Packed by Rosie,” a project she started in concert with CHOP’s ER that provides children with unexpected overnight hospitalizations a goody bag of items to ease their anxious hours of waiting.
Like many of the other scholarship applicants, Rose matured in so many ways as a result of her experiences and ultimately decided to reach out to others because of the empathy she
developed: “Having cancer has certainly changed my life, maybe not for the better, but definitely for good.”
Calvin Fenton
When Calvin Fenton was a junior in high school, he spent a good portion of his days chasing a hockey puck. He loved being on the ice and envisioned a future there, possibly professionally.
But then he got a lymphoma diagnosis, which required at least four months of chemotherapy followed by two months of radiation. Calvin doesn’t sugarcoat the physical aspects of his treatment. “…one minute I was on the ice, chasing a dream and the next I was in a hospital chair hooked up to an IV watching poison drip into my veins in hopes of saving my life.” This memory “still hurts to think about.”
And so, what may have felt like Calvin’s biggest loss: his burgeoning hockey career. “That was a loss I had to grieve on my own.”
While it still hurts, Calvin hasn’t stood still. He has reached out to other teen-age cancer patients who too often experience crushing isolation. He has returned to hockey in a way that he can, as a goalie coach at a summer camp. He joined a Peer Group program at school where he helped freshmen adjust to high school. While he doesn’t know where his eventual career path will take him he knows his “top priority”will be to reach out and help others who have experienced similar challenges. “I can’t be gifted the miracle of life and take parts of it for granted, even something as terrible as cancer.”
Troy Fleagle
When Troy Fleagle’s older brother Braden was diagnosed in 2021 with germinoma brain cancer, Troy couldn’t have known how much Braden’s illness would shape his own future. But it has and, judging from a creative and informative video Troy submitted for his scholarship application, all roads now lead to Penn State and THON, billed as the world’s largest studentrun dance marathon philanthropy benefiting childhood cancer patients and their families through the Four Diamonds Foundation. The foundation also funds pediatric cancer research.
Troy’s video makes it clear that from the beginning he was acutely aware of the role of siblings - he has a younger brother, too - of cancer patients: “Pediatric inpatients are always in the spotlight. They’re the ones that make the news. The siblings are there for it all but we’re watching from the wings.”
Once the shock receded, watching from the wings didn’t sit well with Troy. Braden was a Four Diamonds “child,” which meant he and his family received financial and emotional support from the organization. Realizing this impact, Troy decided to “make a difference” by becoming involved in “mini THONS” every year in high school. By senior year he had served as a miniTHON ambassador and director. He donated his hair twice (totaling 28 inches) for wigs for cancer patients. His hair was cut by Braden on stage at Northern High School. Soon to be a Penn State freshman, Troy he sees his role as helping to educate others about pediatric cancer and supporting patients in active treatment. Oh and to dance at THON “until there is a cure for childhood cancer.” He has a few ambitions: “I will apply to be a first year captain and eventually, executive director.” He seems to be on his way.
Gregory Matczak
Gregory Matczak was a thoughtful 10-year-old dealing with aplastic anemia and, eventually, a rigorous stem cell transplant when he remembers looking at his Dad and realizing that despite wishing and hoping for it, his parents didn’t have the power to “save” him from his disease.
“It was at that moment I realized wishing on a star wasn’t an option anymore. It was up to meto keep living, not some magic wish that could cure me.”
That thought propelled him through the coming months when he tried mightily to remain optimistic, especially for his parents. And he did so not only by enduring his treatment but by reaching out to others in a myriad of ways leading him as of this date to hosting eight annual Red Cross blood drives credited with helping 1,400 people keep on living. But he didn’t stop there. Just this year, knowing first hand how crucial it is to find the right donor for each transplant, he started working with the Be the Match organization and registered more than 200 people as potential future donors for other cancer patients.
With college coming up, Gregory is looking at pre-med with an eventual goal of becoming a pediatric oncologist where he hopes his experience will give him a unique, comforting perspective focused on instilling hope and perseverance in his young patients. He knows it’s a long road ahead but he wants to “persist for that little boy in the hospital all those years ago.”
In the back of his mind, that “pivotal night” in the hospital when he really registered his father’s fear will continue to inspire him to keep his goal front of mind. With his sense of humor intact he writes: “If death couldn’t scare me then, the MCAT won’t stop me now.”
Andrew Shan
Andrew Shan was diagnosed with stage IV cancer at the age of seven. He knows now, having read his medical record, that he was given only an eight percent chance of long-term survival.
Five years later - following 100 rounds of chemotherapy and many other treatments - he was eager to go home and become a “normal kid” again. But those years of treatment obviously took both physical and emotional tolls on Andrew. Like so many pediatric patients, he was scarred literally and emotionally. Like so many others before him, he didn’t want to be “the cancer kid” anymore.
But as he matured, Andrew came to realize that he couldn’t escape his history, nor did he want to anymore. He realized that his survival was tied to research including clinical trials such as the Cookies for Cancer fund “that saved my life.” He also benefited from the Valerie Fund and the Make a Wish foundation. He started fundraising for those organizations. He shared his story on the radio, espousing his gratitude for clinical trials.
“Watching a community gather around a cause, knowing I had played even a small part, was deeply moving.”
In addition, during COVID, he devised masks to be worn by people with hearing aids as he knew first hand that traditional masks didn’t work so well for children like him.
Reflecting on his cancer and the lessons he learned, he is eloquent: “That quiet, anxious, insecure boy who beat the eight percent odds will forever live within me.” But he has a message for kids like him: “I want to tell them something I wish someone had told me. You
don’t have to fit in to belong.”
