Matthew Barter, a junior at Saint Anselm College, will receive the Fr. Bernard Holmes, O.S.B., Senior Award for the coming academic year, Fr. Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., college president, announced. Barter is son of Ronald and Maryann Barter, of Falmouth, Maine, and a graduate of Falmouth High School.
As a Holmes scholar, Barter will receive a full tuition scholarship for his senior year at Saint Anselm, where he is studying criminal justice. Barter would eventually like to work in federal drug enforcement or as a municipal police officer.
“Receiving this award is really an honor; it is the encouragement and motivation to keep living in the spirit of Fr. Bernard,” Barter said.
Fr. Bernard Holmes was president of Saint Anselm and led a dramatic expansion of the college in the 1950s and 1960s. Holmes scholars must rank in the top third of their junior class and demonstrate qualities the late Fr. Bernard was known for: concern for and assistance to others, a love of learning, participation in the life of the college, and leadership.
Barter, who is in his second year as captain of the Saint Anselm Rescue Team, has been drawn to emergency services since high school, when he received his first training. An EMT, he joined the rescue team as a freshman and now also works part-time for the Goffstown, N.H., fire department. During his summer breaks, he is a reserve police officer in Scarborough, Maine. “Once I started, I just fell in love with it.” An avid runner, Barter also likes to hike and water ski.