The First County Bank Richard E. Taber Citizenship Award applications are accepted from January 15th to May 1st. Applications will not be accepted after May 1.

About The Richard E. Taber Citizenship Award Scholarship

This award honors high school students, living in Fairfield County, who consistently demonstrate good citizenship at school, at home, and in the community. The program, which awards $5,000 scholarships to three local deserving students, is designed to recognize and encourage young people who are honest, hard-working, helpful and fair. Through this award, the First County Bank Foundation seeks to motivate promising young students and to build good community-minded citizens for the future. It also provides the young citizens of Fairfield County with the encouragement that is vitally important in shaping their characters at an impressionable time in their lives. The Award, named in honor of past Chairman and CEO, Richard E. Taber, who retired in 2011, was created in recognition of Taber’s innumerable contributions to the community.

Apply NowAccess In Process or Submitted Application

Further Information

The recipient of this award must be a high school senior and have been accepted to a two or four-year college/university or technical/vocational/trade school. The recipient will be selected without regard to race, sex, religion or creed. Each candidate must:

  • Be a current resident of Stamford, Greenwich, Norwalk, Darien, New Canaan, Westport, Fairfield or Bridgeport and be a graduating High School Senior
  • Hold a “B” average or higher during his or her junior and senior years in high school.
  • Be involved in the community
  • Provide reference letters from two individuals not related to the candidate. We prefer that we receive one letter from each of the following:
    • high school teacher or counselor
    • community leader/ volunteer program counselor
  • Provide an admission acceptance letter from a two or four-year college/university or technical/vocational/trade school.
  • Provide a high school transcript
  • Complete a brief essay (not to exceed 1,000 words) describing how the candidate best fits into the below definition of “C.L.A.S.S.”
  • Complete the online application

*Employees, corporators and directors of First County Bank and their affiliates, subsidiaries, agencies, and their respective immediate families (spouse, children, parents and in-laws) are not eligible to apply for the Richard E. Taber Citizenship Award.

Award candidates must consistently demonstrate at home, in school, and in their community the characteristics that this program aims to encourage. These characteristics include:

    • Citizenship – The student must be regarded as dependable, and demonstrate respect for people, property, and the law. The student is also courteous, helpful and caring in his or her relationships with other students, teachers, coaches, and adults.
    • Leadership– The student demonstrates an ability to work with and motivate others, has sound values, good judgment, a sense of fairness, and has earned the respect of his or her peers.
    • Academics – The student continually strives to the limits of his or her abilities, both in the classroom and in the home, to achieve those personal academic goals which his or her parents and teachers believe are within reach of the student.  This in no way implies that the candidate must be academically superior.  The student must have maintained and continue to earn a “B” grade point average or an equivalent.
    • Service– The student readily and unselfishly helps others at home, at school, and in their community to a degree that is judged exceptional for a person of the candidate’s age.
    • Sportsmanship – The student demonstrates an earnest attempt to do his or her best during athletic or group competitions, shows a respect for the rules of that competition, and places the success of the team above the need for personal advancement.  This does not imply that the student must be an outstanding athlete.

Each year, the First County Bank Foundation accepts student applications from January 15th to May 1st. The Foundation’s officers review the applications and make a recommendation to the First County Bank Foundation’s Board of Directors who will select the award recipients.

First County BankFoundation, Inc.

For more information, please call 203.462.4858 or e-mail foundation@firstcountybank.com