Gardberg-Guichard Scholarship

The Gardberg-Guichard scholarship was established in 2004 by an alumnus from the very first graduating class of 1960. It is named for Naomi Gardberg, the school's first principal, and Mildred Guichard, longtime counselor, who were instrumental in ensuring the success of Franklin in those early years.

This $2,500 scholarship is presented to a graduating senior of Benjamin Franklin High School. The scholarship recognizes and rewards the graduating senior who most fully represents the original concept and purpose expressed by the Orleans Parish School Board in establishing Benjamin Franklin (Senior) High School: scholarship, the pursuit of knowledge and higher learning.

Benjamin Franklin High School was conceived and born in controversy and has known controversy throughout its history. Its ability to endure and flourish bears witness to the wisdom, courage, and steadfastness of its founders. The Gardberg-Guichard Scholarship honors the two people most responsible for Franklin's initial success as an experiment in excellence in public education.

Naomi Gardberg was a visionary education administrator, founding a program to encourage and challenge exceptional students during her tenure as principal at LaSalle Elementary School. Her choice as the first principal for Franklin High School was both testimony to her commitment to excellence in education as well as a triumph for vision over suspicion. Naomi Gardberg provided the intellectual foundation for Franklin High School, working with the small, but first-rate, faculty in the early years to ensure that academic standards were established at high levels consonant with the abilities of the students. She was a tireless advocate of Franklin, and all that it could mean for education in New Orleans, with school administration, with other schools within the system and with the public. Principal Gardberg was not without detractors, but her devotion to the ideal of excellence in public education fostered immense respect and numerous defenders. Franklin High School lost one of its most important assets when Naomi Gardberg died in March, 1960, just two months shy of the school's first graduation ceremony.

While Naomi Gardberg was the head of Franklin High School, Mildred Guichard was its heart. Coming to Franklin after four years at Peters Junior High School, where she served as counselor, Ms. Guichard was faced with a daunting task. Students from all across Orleans Parish were descending on the old Carrollton Courthouse to begin a new experiment in education in New Orleans. Some were frightened, some perhaps a bit haughty, but all faced a challenge they could not have anticipated. The building was hardly ready for students and the demands of the faculty were, frankly, enormous. Mildred Guichard was the person who, day in and day out, had to deal with the moans and groans, the disappointments, the uncertainties, the self-doubt and the sense that all was not right. On a human level, Mildred Guichard balanced the intellectual rigors that Naomi Gardberg brought to the school with a warmth and encouragement that proved essential to success for many of those first students, and for hundreds that followed in her long career at Franklin.

Not wishing to minimize the contribution of many others to the establishment and continued success of Franklin High School as a beacon of educational excellence in New Orleans and around the country, the Gardberg-Guichard Scholarship recognizes and perpetuates in a very special way the seminal contributions of these two pioneers.

Past Gardberg-Guichard Scholarship Recipients:

2009 - Dwayne Fontenette
2008 - Sopan Mohnot
2007 - Helen Waller
2006 - Ann Dinh
2005 - Vi Tuong Tran
2004 - Rebecca Abbott

Revised 10/17/2008