The Beechwood High School Band Boosters awarded Matthew Izor the 2023 Sarah E. Menez Memorial Scholarship, presenting the award as part of the Beechwood High School Senior Honors program.
Izor was a member of the Beechwood Marching Tigers (2018- 2022), where he held the Section Leader (2021-2022), the KMEA State Championship Marching Tigers (2019 and 2021) and third place in 2018 and 2022, the Beechwood Marching Tigers National Class A Bands of America (BOA) Regional Championship (2018 and 2019), the BOA Grand National Semifinalist (2019 and 2022). He was also a member of the Beechwood Marching Tigers which received the Sudler Shield Award (2022) by the John Philip Sousa Foundation, an award to premier high school marching bands internationally ranked at a world-class level of excellence.
Izor was selected for the NKBDA Select Band (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023), the KMEA All-State Symphonic Band (2020, 2021, 2022) and the Beechwood Jazz Ensemble (2019-2023) where he played trombone. And lastly, he was recognized as a Beechwood High School National Honor Society member (2020-2023), and a Mu Alpha Theta member (2021-2023).
Izor’s service activities included, among others, Isaiah House, Rose Garden Mission, Be Concerned, and St. Elizabeth Hospital.
“Matthew is well organized, pro-active, and enthusiastic,” one teacher wrote. “In addition to being highly intelligent, he is also hardworking…. As an individual, Matthew is quiet and respectful.”
“I am honored that the scholarship committee recognized me for this award and, as importantly, am proud to be among those students that this scholarship has supported over the years,” Izor said.
“We are pleased to have this scholarship to promote purposes and qualities of character, musicianship, and academic achievement in our students,” said Beechwood Band Boosters President Matt Thompson. “It is always a challenge, however, to select one student from so many fine candidates.”
The Sarah E. Menez Memorial Scholarship was established in 2014 by the Beechwood Band Boosters in association with Joseph Menez to honor the memory of his late wife Sarah Menez. One scholarship is awarded annually for tuition assistance to a senior attending Beechwood High School who has best represented the personal qualities of Sarah Menez, musicianship, academic promise and who has been accepted at an accredited college or university.
Contributions to the Sarah E. Menez Memorial Scholarship can be made to the Beechwood Band Boosters as a gift designated for the Sarah E. Menez Memorial Scholarship. The Band Boosters mailing address is 54 Beechwood Road, Ft. Mitchell, KY 41017.
The Beechwood Band Boosters is a non-profit IRC 501(c)(3) organization that was established to assist Beechwood’s Bands and directors with their programs and projects; to lend financial assistance to the bands for co-curricular and extracurricular activities; and to promote a culture of excellence and exquisite musicianship.
To learn more about the Sarah E. Menez Memorial Scholarship, visit www.beechwoodbands.org.
Beechwood Band Boosters