Amy Tillotson of Islip, L.I. and Madeline Rae Hooper were named the 2007 winners of the Patricia Louise Masotto and Brenda Driscoll Scholarships.

The scholarships, for high school senior girls, were named after two young women who were killed in a car accident in 1985. The scholarship was established in 1987.

Amy Tillotson

You name it and Tillotson, an Islip resident, probably has done it -- in the class room and on the athletic field.  A graduate of Islip High School, Tillotson made the high honor roll at the school while accruing an un-weighted 98 average. She wound up in the top five percent of her class.

She is a member of the National Honor Society, Foreign Language Honor Society and Athletes Helping Athletes.

On the soccer pitch, Tillotson has enjoyed more than her share of success. She was a member of a Suffolk County high school championship team in her junior and senior years. She was a two-time State Cup champion in the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association competition as well.

Tillotson has proved to be a young woman for all sports seasons. Besides playing soccer in Islip, she also participated in varsity basketball, varsity spring track and varsity cross country.

In her essay, Tillotson indicated that she has learned from life’s disappointment to make herself a better player and person. She remembered when she learned she did not make an Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association ODP team several years ago.

"Not making the team was one of the biggest disappointments I’ve ever faced," she wrote. "But it also taught me the importance of determination, desire and commitment. I could easily have given up and not tried out the following year, but it was not in my character to just give up on something about which I was so passionate."

So, for the next several months Tillotson practiced her skills.  "No only did it help me improve my skills, but it also helped me gain the confidence I have today," she wrote. "When the next tryout came around, I felt more prepared than ever."

Tillotson made the team. "At that point in my life, I realize that I could achieve anything to which I put my mind," she wrote. "Not only did I prove to the people around me that I belonged on the New York State Team, but I proved to myself that a little discipline and dedication could take you a long way."

Madeline Rae Hooper

Hooper, an Elizabethtown resident, is another honor student to earn a scholarship. Her senior year average was a 93.50.  Just, if not more impressive as her academic pursuits was her extra-curricular activities and community service.

At school, she was a member of the National Honor Society, a Student Council Representative and the Class of 2007 president. Throughout the community, Hooper’s list of accomplishments is quite long and impressive.  Her many activities included Katrina and tsunami relief, African orphans with AIDS fund-raider, dinners for Cystic Fibrosis and Thanksgiving, Stop SWI After Prom, Salvation Army Red Kettle Drive and working at a local food bank.

She graduated from Keene Central School in June and is attending Endicott College in Beverly, Mass., playing for the school’s women’s soccer team while working towards a sports management degree.

In her essay, Hooper wrote that she needed the scholarship to "help to defray the cost of tuition."  She later added: "As my family stands financially right now, I will not be able to stay at this school for four years, the school I’ve always dreamed of attending, without financial help."

Hooper has played with the Soccer United Girls Premier League the past three years. She was a first-team all-star for several years in the Mountain Valley Athletic Conference, won the coach’s award, sportsmanship award and the scholar athlete award (2006).  She also excelled at basketball and -- Hooper was team captain from 2004-2207 and earned first- and second MVAC honors in basketball.

In-between all of her activities, Hooper also managed to work -- as a waitress, painter and baby-sitter.

"I have worked to better my game, as well as keep an A average throughout high school," she wrote. "Soccer is an important part of my life. I plan to continue to play at the collegiate level."