CWONJ Awards Two Scholarships

The Car Wash Operators of New Jersey (CWONJ) has awarded a 2023 Scholarship to Riley Stoops and Ashley Coiscou Perez. Both candidates displayed exemplary scholastic and extra curricular efforts, according to Dan Saidel, CWONJ Scholarship Chairman.

Riley Stoops is an employee at Magic Wash in Manahawkin and plans to study mechanical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. Riley spends much of his time as a trombonist/baritone player in a number of ensembles including the Southern Regional Golden Rams Marching Band where he is also on the leadership committee and has served as a section leader for the past two years. He is also a member of the Southern Regional Jazz Ensemble Honor Band. But true to his desired major, Riley has joined the Southern Regional Mathematics League where he will participate in the 10^th Annual Stockton University “Math Mayhem” Competition. He is also part of the Southern Jersey NFL Flag Football League. According to his boss at the wash, Doug Rieck, “His performance, attendance and responsibility are excellent. He started in the full-service department vacuuming and cleaning and has proven capable of customer relations and moved up to handling the entrance end and guide on.”

Ashley Coiscou Perez plans to pursue an arts and sciences major at Rutgers Newark College in the fall. She is an employee at Premier Car Wash in Millburn. Inspired by her aunt, who is a psychologist, Ashley would like to study how the mind works and its intellectual capacity and how we adapt to change in hopes of becoming an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist as well. She noted in her essay that while in college she plans to help other students cope with stress and self confidence by forming meetings where they can talk freely and openly about their struggles. She also plans to form an English as a Second Language (ESL) group as Ashley immigrated to the US as a child from the Dominican Republic.

While in high school she was a member of the American Honor Society, the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS) and has spent countless hours helping teachers and making donations to local churches and those in the Dominican Republic. She has also provided food and snacks to the homeless with help from her mother.

Information on the CWONJ’s 2024 Scholarship is available on the association’s website, cwonj.com