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Monk’s Home Improvements awards $10,000 in scholarships to local high school students every year. Five $2,000 scholarships are awarded based on applicants’ efforts to better our community through volunteering and service work.
The five students selected for the scholarship all identified a problem and took initiative to improve the situation. Some of the highlights of their work are detailed below.
We proudly recognized our 2026 scholarship recipients at an awards ceremony in May 2026. Along with Monk’s employees, our recipients and their guests meal-packed 500 breakfast bags in support of nourishNJ.
Meet the 2026 Monk’s Service Scholarship Recipients
Anisha Mulinti, Montville Township High School
Anisha’s community service journey began with a focus on gender diversity in STEM. As captain of her robotics team, she organized lessons for girls across 130+ libraries and schools. She extended her efforts internationally, ultimately reaching over 2,750 students across India, Afghanistan, Colombia, the UK and US. She also made a point of tailoring her teaching to students with different learning needs, ensuring everyone has an equal opportunity to engage with STEM.
Beyond robotics, Anisha took on the role of Key Club President. She was elected New Jersey Key Club’s UNICEF Champion, engaging over 10,000 members for fundraising. Through Sewa International, Anisha championed environmental causes, helping pass a plastic bag ban, restoring parks and rivers, and leading FEMA disaster preparedness sessions.
Anisha channeled her passion for technology into solving real community problems — securing $40,000 in grant funding to build a litter-cleanup robot and designing an autonomous wheelchair ramp to improve city accessibility. These experiences shaped her belief that meaningful innovation must combine technology with thoughtful strategy. At UPenn’s M&T Program she will continue working toward sustainable, community-driven solutions.
Xing Liao, Union County Vocational Technical High School
Xing has spent three years as an IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) volunteer. The only high schooler among seasoned accountants, Xing pushed through self-doubt to build trust with her clients.
As a child of immigrants, Xing recognized the language barriers many families face when navigating unfamiliar systems and took action. As founder and chair of the National Empowerment Education Committee under the Alliance of Youth Leaders in the U.S., Xing recruited 20 volunteers and developed a tutoring initiative to teach English to refugee students. Rather than following a rigid curriculum, Xing tailored each session to individual needs.
Across her service work, Xing actively listens, thoughtfully adapts, and shows up with patience and care. Xing’s experiences reflect a belief that impact isn’t measured by the scale of a project, but by consistency and personal investment brought to every individual they serve.
Xing is heading to UMass Amherst to study Accounting.
Calvin Coakley, Livingston High School
Calvin’s service work centers on RISE (Robotics In Schools Everywhere), a student-led program he joined in early 2025 to bring robotics education to the GRACE School in Kisii, Kenya. Calvin spearheaded fundraising efforts to reach a $5,700 goal for robotics kits. He then devoted hundreds of hours to developing a 36-lesson curriculum, creating educational videos, custom activities, and graphic organizers designed to spark student creativity. His dedication earned him the role of project lead, and two mornings a week from May through August, he was up at 7 AM meeting with Kenyan teachers via video call to prepare them for the classroom.
Students responded so enthusiastically that the GRACE School invited Calvin to teach in person. His visit culminated in a demonstration event attended by over 70 educators and two members of Kenya’s National Ministry of Education. Since then, the curriculum has expanded to four additional schools in Kisii, with 15 more waiting, and three New Jersey high schools have joined the effort. Back home, Calvin’s team has also developed a second-year computer science curriculum, and he continues volunteering locally through the Love Thy Neighbor food drive initiative.
Calvin’s service reflects his broader conviction that engineering and community impact go hand in hand. He plans to pursue mechanical engineering at Cal Poly with the goal of applying his skills to our most pressing challenges, from climate change to resource sustainability, driven by a belief that meaningful change requires both good intentions and real-world expertise.
Dheirya Tyagi, Bernards High School
Dheirya’s creative storytelling sessions with his younger brother during the pandemic allowed him to recognize the power of peer-to-peer communication. This led him to found “Simple Explanations,” an educational initiative designed to demystify complex STEM concepts. Leveraging his coding and video development skills, he built a full-stack website featuring interactive web tools, student-submitted notes, and AI review quizzes. Over a twelve-month period, he scaled this self-paced solution across YouTube and TikTok, successfully reaching over 1.19 million global learners with more than 230 instructional STEM videos.
In addition to his digital outreach, Dheirya has demonstrated exceptional local leadership and commitment to hands-on learning. As Co-President of his high school’s Tech & Robotics Club, he organized and ran three regional competitions for over 300 attendees. His engineering workshops also drove 400% growth in the club’s membership.
At the individual level, Dheirya has invested heavily in direct mentorship for underserved communities. He has dedicated over 140 hours volunteering as a tutor for educational nonprofits such as Schoolhouse and Stanford Code in Place, directly mentoring resource-constrained high school students in SAT preparation and introductory computer science. Fueled by his perspective as a first-generation college student, his tailored, adaptive group lesson plans ensure accessibility.
Dheirya will be attending Georgia Tech in the fall.
Ivan Hernandez, West Essex High School
Ivan has supported immigrant and international students navigating language barriers, a mission deeply inspired by witnessing his father’s own immigration challenges. To address a critical gap in his community, Ivan took the initiative to establish the New Horizons Program at his school before an official ESL or ELL program existed. Serving peers from 11 different countries, the program provided a welcoming environment that combined language tutoring, social activities, and interactive games. Through this initiative, Ivan helped non-native English speakers build communication confidence, cultivate relationships, and successfully transition into their new school environment.
Building on the success of New Horizons, Ivan actively advocated for the introduction of a formal ESL class at his high school to ensure consistent, long-term language support. Once established, he deepened his commitment by stepping into the role of a student teacher for the class. Beyond language advocacy, Ivan demonstrated strong organizational leadership as Vice President of DECA, where he spearheaded recruitment and engagement efforts that more than doubled the chapter’s membership from 60 to over 130 students, significantly expanding access to professional development and business education.
2027 SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
The 2027 Scholarship will begin accepting applicants at the end of 2026. If you’d like to receive an email notification when the 2027 application is open, please enter your email in the form below.
Eligible are high school seniors and continuing college undergraduate students. Your permanent residence must be within the Monk’s service area. For all terms and conditions, please see here.
