Each year, the Virginia Beach Rotary Club recognizes several outstanding academic students from the Virginia Beach Public School System and awards them substantial scholarship money.

The scholarships are part of the Brickell Scholars Program, which the Virginia Beach Rotary Club created in 1990. The three scholarships are:
- E.E. Brickell Scholarship ($5,000)
- John J. Kreuger Memorial Scholarship ($2,000)
- Richard J. Schlimgen Memorial Scholarship ($1,000)

E. E. Brickell Scholarship
The Virginia Beach Rotary Club started this high school scholarship in 1990 as a way to honor the former Virginia City Public School superintendent. The $5,000 scholarship is awarded yearly to one student who demonstrates an excellent grade point average, is enrolled in the most challenging academic courses, displays evidence of scholarly work outside of the regular curriculum, and has achieved the highest scores on standardized testing.

John J. Krueger Memorial Scholarship
The John Krueger Memorial Scholarship was established in 1998 to honor the memory of John Krueger, a doctor of pathology at Virginia Beach General Hospital. The $2,000 scholarship is awarded yearly to one student with outstanding achievement in the fields of science and mathematics.

Richard J. Schlimgen Memorial Scholarship
The Richard J. Schlimgen Memorial Scholarship began in 1983 and is given yearly to one student who seeks greater knowledge of leadership principles and skills. This student serves his or her school and their community and exhibits leadership, service, scholarship, citizenship, and creativity.

How to participate
Virginia Beach High Schools select approximately 25 rising high school seniors to participate in the Brickell Scholars Program.

During their senior year, these Brickell Scholars participate in four seminars. The first seminar, usually in January, is a meet and greet with activities that encourage interaction among students from the different high schools.

The second seminar is typically on medical ethics. This year, the 2007-2008 Brickell Scholars learned and talked about Medical Ethics with Dr. Thomas Pellegrino, Associate Dean of Education at EVMS, where he teaches medical ethics.

The third seminar is on the arts.  Students heard from award-winning artist Kay Hofler, a retired Salem High School Fine Arts Department Chairperson and art teacher, and Betsy de Julio, an art teacher at Princess Anne High School and former Education Liaison for the Contemporary Arts Center of Virginia Beach.

The fourth seminar is on government and civic duty topics. This year the Brickell Scholars heard from Jody Wagner, Virginia's Secretary of Finance; Judge Thomas Shadrick, a Virginia Beach Circuit Court judge; and Delegate Bobby Mathieson of the General Assembly.

At the end of the program, the scholarship recipients are selected by a committee of community leaders and Rotarians. In May, the Virginia Beach Rotary Club's Annual Scholars Recognition Dinner honors the recipients of the three scholarships, and announces the Brickell Scholars for the following year.

The 2007-2008 program is headed by Past President, Dr. Robert Frazier.

Background of Brickell Scholars Program
Dr. Edward E. Brickell served a distinguished career in education over a period of 36 years. Twenty-one of those years were with the Virginia Beach City Public School System as a coach, teacher, principal and ultimately as School Superintendent. Dr. Brickell earned his Doctorate at the College of William and Mary and was well known throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and nationally as one of the most outstanding educational leaders in the country.

Dr. Brickell was not only an effective leader in the development of the superb Virginia Beach Public School System, he was also well known in the General Assembly and the Virginia Beach City Council as the creator of one of the most outstanding School Systems in the country. This school system, along with a strong Economic Development Commission, was largely responsible for the rapid growth of the city. At Dr. Brickell's retirement, our school system had grown to more than 70,000 students, 65 facilities, and 7,000 employees.

Dr. Brickell's retirement promoted the Virginia Beach Rotary Club to find a way to honor his accomplishments and keep his name tied to the outstanding school system he created. What resulted was the Brickell Scholars Program, in which Virginia Beach City Public School students could compete for a $5,000 scholarship. The common requirement was academic achievement as well as a well-rounded, active and involved student.

The first scholarship was awarded in 1990. The program now includes two other scholarships, the John J. Krueger Memorial Scholarship and the Richard J. Schlimgen Memorial Scholarship.

Since 1990, the E. E. Brickell Scholarship winners have been:

1990 Deepak Telreja              Cox High School
1991 Monica Nixon                 Princess Anne High School
1992 Evelyn Cayce Butler       Salem High School
1993 Kevin Ruff                      Kempsville High School
1994 Ryan Shadrick                First Colonial High School
1995 Michael Maraghy            Bayside High School
1996 Catherine Ambler           First Colonial High School
1997 Steven Lin                      Kempsville High School
1998 Joshua Hicks                   Kempsville High School
1999 Sri Krishna Mukkamala    Princess Anne High School
2000 Paul N. Hogan Otta         Princess Anne High School
2001 Karen C. Hogan Otto      Princess Anne High School
2002 Robert A. Marx                Princess Anne High School
2003 Grace Kong Huang          Princess Anne High School
2004 Babita Panigrahi             Ocean Lakes High School
2005 Ajay Suresh                    Princess Anne High School
2006 Angela Xu                       Princess Anne High School
2007 Ian Marpuri                     Princess Anne High School