Taylor Farms New Jersey Awards College Scholarships To Children of Employees

It’s graduation season, and like the previous nine years, Taylor Farms will once again award deserving students, who are children of active, full-time Taylor Farms employees, with scholarships to help advance their collegiate careers.

Though we have been awarding scholarships since 2008, the Scholarship Program was formally developed in California in 2012, and this year Taylor Farms New Jersey adopted the program, in honor of our late employee David Zarrilli. David spent two and a half years as part of Team Taylor as Financial Controller where his wisdom and sense of humor had a tremendous impact on our company. Because of his love for helping others, it seems only fitting that we name this scholarship award after him.

Much like the rest of Taylor Farms’ scholarships, the David Zarrilli Memorial Scholarship is geared towards four-year undergraduate university or graduate program students and is available to children of Taylor Farms New Jersey employees.

From left: Anna-Marie Kolesinki, Taylor Farms New Jersey team member who works in the plant’s prepared foods department, Amber Kolesinki, 2017 scholarship recipient, Elivett Sanchez Ortiz, 2017 scholarship recipient, Elivett Ortiz Coll, Taylor Farms New Jersey team member who works in the commissary department, Jim Bryan, director of operations for Taylor Farms New Jersey, and Sheryl Zarrilli, wife of the late David Zarrilli

An internal committee chose two promising students, who were each awarded a $6,250 scholarship:

Elivett Sanchez Ortiz, whose mother Elivett Ortiz Coll works in New Jersey’s commissary department. She is headed to Temple University’s College of Science and Technology to pursue a degree in Biology.

Amber Koleskinki, who will be attending Rowan University in the fall has aspiration to major in Elementary Education. Her mother, Anna-Marie Kolesinki, works in the New Jersey plant’s prepared foods department.

To celebrate the scholarships, Taylor Farms hosted an onsite BBQ in New Jersey, where employees and their families came together for lunch while the winners were announced. Congratulations to Elivett, Amber, and their parents — this scholarship is so well-deserved!

Here’s a short video from last year’s scholarship luncheon — and stay tuned for the winners of this year’s California scholarships coming up on June 16th!