Lily Kate Aulino, a 2026 graduate of Columbus Bishop Watterson High School, received this year’s memorial scholarship from the Wendy O. Ward Foundation.
Aulino received $2,500 for college expenses, which she plans to put toward her education at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she will attend in the fall.
Her activities at Watterson included founding and leading the Good Different Club, varsity cheerleading, the National Business Honors Society and serving as anchorwoman and director of the Bishop Watterson News. She engaged in frequent service as a cheerleading coach and religious school aide. She acquired business work experience as a sales associate at a local boutique and hopes to study journalism and business at Wake Forest.
RELATED | Salute to the class of 2026
Wendy Ward, a graduate of Bishop Luers High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and of the University of Dayton, was grateful for her Catholic education and always said she counted herself lucky to do something not all English majors can – use her skills and write every day for her company, Constructive Communication, Inc., where she was vice president.
Ward’s husband, Chris, a graduate of Columbus St. Charles Preparatory School, established the scholarships in 2015 in memory of his wife, a Hilliard resident who died of breast cancer on May 18, 2012 after a 10-year career as a writer and public relations consultant. He and their children, Leo and Jack, hope the scholarships provide others with the opportunities Wendy had.
The scholarships are awarded to a graduate of a Columbus diocesan or Hilliard public high school who has been involved in school, community and parish activities and has demonstrated academic achievement, particularly in language arts.