Norwood’s Diya Bhandari Receives $2,500 Scholarship

Norwood resident and Norwood Record Freelance Reporter Diya Bhandari has been selected as the 2026 recipient of the Viola Sastavickas Scholarship from the Morrill Memorial Library. The scholarship, now in its twentieth year, will provide Bhandari with $2,500 towards her undergraduate education at Northeastern University.

Bhandari will enter Northeastern’s John Martinson Honors Program this fall, where she plans to major in Political Science and Economics.

A graduate of Norwood High School, Bhandari served as president of the school’s Asian Cultural Club for more than three years. During her senior year, she led a partnership between the club and the Massachusetts AAPI Commission’s Youth Council to organize a showcase celebrating AAPI Heritage Month. She also advocated successfully for the addition of AAPI-authored books to Norwood High School’s summer reading curriculum and digital library collection.

Bhandari has said that her experience volunteering at the Morrill Memorial Library helped inspire and support this work.

“Diya has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to her community and to creating opportunities for others,” said Library Director Clayton Cheever. “We are delighted to support her as she begins her studies at Northeastern, and especially pleased to do so through a scholarship that honors a family with such a longstanding connection to the library.”

The scholarship was established by the children of Joseph and Viola Sastavickas following Viola’s death. The Sastavickas family were longtime library users, and in the later years of their lives, Viola and Joseph received library services in their home through the library’s Homebound Delivery Department.

Shortly after Viola’s death, her children made a generous donation to establish a perpetual scholarship in her memory. Additional gifts from the family have increased the award over the years, with a recent donation bringing this year’s scholarship to $2,500.

According to Viola’s daughter, Kathy Sastavickas, the scholarship is “a fitting tribute to our beautiful mother and to the library and staff who treated her with great respect and affection.”

Bhandari was selected from this year’s applicants by a committee consisting of Sarah Begg, 2026–2027 Chair of the Library Board of Trustees; Kate Tigue, Chapter Chair of the AFSCME Library Unit; and Cheever.

Bhandari was also one of 40 semifinalists selected from more than 100,000 applicants for the highly competitive Stamps Scholarship.

“Being named a semifinalist among more than 100,000 applicants was an extraordinary accomplishment,” Cheever said. “We are very happy that the Sastavickas Scholarship gives the library an opportunity to recognize Diya’s accomplishments and help support her as she begins this next chapter.”

The Morrill Memorial Library congratulates Bhandari and wishes her well as she begins her studies at Northeastern University.

Diya is pictured with Library Director, Clayton Cheever; Sarah Begg, 2026-2027 Chair of the Board, and Lydia Sampson, Assistant Director at the Morrill Memorial Library.