Nick Berg

Since 2005

The Nick Berg Memorial Scholarship

The Nick Berg Scholarship is awarded each spring to a graduating senior from Nick's alma mater, Henderson High School in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

The award is chosen by committee and presented to a student who has been active in the music programs and shows enthusiasm for learning, especially in the sciences. We look for a love of learning, curiosity, a generous spirit, strong relationships with peers and teachers, and a character that is hard to describe but easy to recognize: a presence, the kind that brings people together. Nick had it.

We are proud to honor Nick in this way and we intend to continue the fund in perpetuity. We also work to increase the scholarship amount. The original endowment was funded purely by individuals who were grieving over the world's loss of Berg. Since then we have raised money through community events like Berg-O-Palooza and by simply sharing our story and asking humbly.

There is no application and no fixed amount. The committee at Henderson chooses the student, and the award is whatever the fund can give that year.

We thank everyone who has contributed time and money, and the hundreds of people who have written us letters and email.

Recipients

22 awards
    Former recipients If you received this scholarship, we would love to hear from you.

    Tell us where you landed and what you are working on. Write to fund@nickberg.org.

    Support the fund

    Contributions are tax deductible and go entirely to the scholarship.

    Donate with PayPal Mail a check

    With thanks

    The original endowment came from people who were grieving. Everything since has come from friends, families, bandmates, and strangers who read this site and gave. A special thank you to Peter Katz, to Clara Thorne, to Azim Siddiqui for the film, to the volunteers and bands of Berg-O-Palooza, and to the scholarship committee at Henderson High School.

    How the fund was built

    From 2008 to 2011 friends threw Berg-O-Palooza, an afternoon of live music in West Chester that raised a couple thousand dollars a year for the scholarship. Kevin Bean, Rob Perna and the New Kings of Rhythm, The Inverse, Steppin Razor, the John Grecia Band, and Peter Katz all played for free. Venues included 15 North, The Note, and the Unitarian Fellowship of West Chester.

    Peter Katz's song "Forgiveness," written after Michael Berg's public response to his son's death, became the closing number every year.

    Hand-drawn brown poster for Berg-O-Palooza 2008
    Berg-O-Palooza 2008 poster.