Congratulations to our 2025 Eye-Bank Scholarship winners! Kismeilyn Alcantara is the recipient of the 2025 Young Ambassador Scholarship, and Jonah Keller is the recipient of this year’s STEM Scholarship. Each awardee will receive a $3,000 scholarship from The Eye-Bank.
Young Ambassador Scholarship Winner Kismeilyn Alcantara is a rising sophomore at Nassau Community College pursuing a degree in Marketing and Business Administration. For her Young Ambassador Scholarship public outreach project, Kismeilyn organized multiple tabling events on her college campus to raise awareness about eye donation and to encourage faculty and students to register as eye, organ and tissue donors on the New York State Donate Life Registry. To support her outreach efforts, she created an informative brochure and presentation that addressed frequently asked questions about eye donation. The Eye-Bank Young Ambassador Scholarship was established by Eye-Bank Board Member Andrea Nordquist in memory of her son, Christopher, who became an eye donor when he passed away at the age of two.
STEM Scholarship Winner Jonah Keller will begin his first year at Harvard Medical School in August 2025. He is a graduate of Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences. In his winning research proposal, Jonah outlined an innovative approach for using artificial intelligence to improve donor-recipient matching by predicting the most successful outcomes for corneal transplants—aiming to maximize the use of donated corneal tissue. The Eye-Bank STEM Scholarship honors the legacy of James Fabian, The Eye-Bank’s former President and a dedicated member of the organization’s Board of Directors for 18 years.
On behalf of the Scholarship Committee, The Eye-Bank wishes both Kismeilyn and Jonah success in their future endeavors. Information about Eye-Bank Scholarships and previous winners can be found on our website.