The Martha’s Vineyard Bank Charitable Foundation has chosen the first recipients of the recently established Ron Rappaport Scholar Fund. The bank appointed an inaugural scholar and two emerging leadership awards this month.
Leah Palmer was named the 2026 scholar. Ms. Palmer is the English language learning director for the Island’s public school system, and is currently working on her Ed.D. at Vanderbilt Univeristy. The award will support her through her final six semesters there.
Noah Manning and Camilla Prata were given the emerging leadership awards.
Mr. Manning is a a junior at Cornell and a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head. His undergraduate work is focused on environmental studies.
Ms. Prata will attend the University of North Carolina for her Pharm.D. this fall. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nutrition from UMass Amherst and currently works as a nutritionist in the WIC program. She was a 2017 Vision Fellow and has interned at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, where she researched opioid overdoses and Naloxone use on Martha’s Vineyard.
This article appears in May 29, 2026.
Congratulations to Camilla! She is brilliant and any awards she receives are absolutely deserved!