Anna Gentile, 2020 WDCHOF Scholarship Winner
Anna Gentile, of Fallston, Maryland is the winner of this year’s $500 World Drum Corps Hall of Fame scholarship, awarded from funds supported by the annual pledges of more than 200 Hall of Fame associate members.
Scholarships are available to members of the families of Hall of Fame members. She is the granddaughter of Phil Gentile.
She is a senior majoring in Child Psychology at James Madison University where she has maintained an above 3.0 grade point average each semester. She expects to find work in the child psychology field after graduation.
Anna Gentile, 2020 World Drum Corps Hall of Fame Scholarship winner
She has worked since at an Early Childhood Learning Center for the past five summers, beginning at age 16. She has also volunteered with the Special Olympics program. At the learning center, she works five days a week with children from six weeks of age to fifth graders, and all ages in between. She eagerly seeks more opportunities to work with kids outside the learning centre, including babysitting one of her 11 young cousins every chance she gets.
James Madison University (JMU), founded more than a century ago in 1908, is a public university located in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. JMU has earned high regard in post-secondary education because students enjoy unusually engaged relationships with world-class faculty.
Philip Gentile has been a member of the Hall of Fame since 1993. His drum corps career includes many years of service in various roles with Yankee Rebels of Baltimore, including drum major, soprano horn player, drill and horn instructor, program coordinator, assistant director. He became corps director following the retirement of long time director George Bull in 1992.
Regular World Drum Corps Hall of Fame members are honoured for their dedication, contributions and achievements over a long period of time in categories including administration, arranging, adjudication, instruction, innovation and design. Associate members have dedicated at least five consecutive years of service to any drum and bugle corps as a performer or in a support role. Special membership categories include inductees honoured for Distinguished Professional Achievement, International Achievement and individuals receiving the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Current membership has grown from six charter members in 1976 to 532 men and women from the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan, including 310 regular members and 213 associates.
The World Drum Corps Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization honoring those individuals who have contributed significantly over many years to the development and continuing excellence of drum and bugle corps activity around the world. For more information, visit the website at wdchof.org
