DV graduate Yoshi Sumitomo is first winner of scholarship founded to help first-generation Americans

Delaware Valley High School graduate Yoshi Sumitomo has received the first award from The Reggie Cheong-Leen and Peter Spielhagen Scholarship Fund.

The fund was established at the Greater Pike Community Foundation by Cheong-Leen to grant a scholarship to a DV senior with demonstrated financial need and academic excellence whose parents were immigrants to the United States and who is planning to attend an accredited trade school, college, or university.

Sumitomo will use the grant of up to four years of full tuition to attend Penn State University and major in computer science.

“The greatest pleasure I have at this stage in my life is to be able to be of service to somebody I can help,” Cheong-Leen said.

The fund has deep personal significance to him since he and husband, Peter Spielhagen, who died in 2019, were both immigrants to the United States.

Sumitomo is a member of several student honor societies and was on the high school varsity volleyball and soccer teams.

“I’m really grateful and hope I can live up to expectations,” he said.

Acknowledging there were other students who qualified, he added, “I feel like I’ve used up a life’s worth of luck, and I hope I will use this opportunity to get a degree and support my family.”

Online donations to the Reggie Cheong-Leen & Peter Spielhagen Fund at Greater Pike Community Foundation can be made at greaterpike.org/our-funds (scroll down to “Scholarship Funds” and click on the link for the fund).

Greater Pike helps individuals, families and local businesses to provide a permanent and personal way to give back to the community. For more information on establishing a fund, contact Jenni Hamill, Executive Director at 570-832-4686, jennihamill@greaterpike.org, or visit greaterpike.org and Facebook.com/GreaterPike.