Salem Awards 7 Scholarships With Waste Management Partnership

SALEM, MA — The city of Salem, in partnership with Waste Management, has awarded seven students scholarships through the 2026 city of Salem and Waste Management Scholarships program.

The annual program supports Salem students pursuing college or graduate-level study and asks applicants to submit an essay on a sustainability topic. This year, students focused on ideas for reducing solid waste in Salem.

Four students received $1,500 scholarships and three received $1,000 awards.

Mariam Aleksanyan, a graduate of Salem High School who will attend Boston College, wrote about cafeteria share tables to reduce school food waste and increasing public access to compost drop-off sites.

Brennan Connor, a graduate of New Liberty Innovation School who plans to attend North Shore Community College for Aviation Management, proposed school-run gardens that use composted food waste to build healthy soil, reduce greenhouse gases and provide environmental learning while improving nutrition.

Miles Kelleher, who will attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the fall for Geographic Information Systems, outlined a GIS-based waste and recycling map designed to support targeted education, improve collection efficiency and help municipal design.

Azriel Taguiam, a graduate of Salem Academy Charter School who is studying Public Health at Boston College, addressed waste in healthcare settings and suggested reusable equipment and sustainable packaging.

Three other students received $1,000 scholarships.

Caroline Guthrie, who will pursue a degree in Library and Information Science at Simmons University, wrote about how public libraries and schools could expand community outreach and recycling education, while also highlighting the need for more compost drop-off sites in Salem.

Mia Silva, a graduate of Salem High School who will attend Amherst College to major in History, described how Salem High’s cafeteria composting program expanded her understanding of waste issues and offered ideas for reaching more Salem residents with composting and recycling education.

Henry Worth, who attended Essex Technical High School and now studies Civil Engineering at UMass Lowell, emphasized reducing single-use plastic through incentives to businesses and centralizing waste collection to improve waste truck routes.