In as trying a school year as the county has seen in quite some time, 36% of the combined graduating classes from Alba-Golden, Mineola and Quitman high schools will benefit from monetary scholarships. The vast majority of those students are recipients of locally-sponsored scholarships. 

As Melisia Foster, one of two Mineola high school counselors commented, “Local scholarships show the students that they are valued members of the community.”

Her office mate, Rachael Wernecke, described how these scholarships weave the students into the community by establishing a relationship between the two and vesting one in the other. 

Each year the Monitor publishes a list of the scholarship offers earned by the graduating seniors of each school. That list is impressive. The combined monetary value of the scholarships offered to seniors from the three schools is over $1.3 million. That buys a lot of college textbooks. 

What is not evident from those exhaustive lists of awardees is just what those scholarships represent, and the efforts undertaken to match graduating sons and daughters to sponsors who provide them financial support in life’s next steps. 

Scholarships come in all manners and art. While a student’s achievements form the basis for awarding of a scholarship, the mechanism is not a reward, but rather an investment. That investment is by the donor organization and in the future achievement of the awardee. 

That simple relationship, manifested in local scholarships, speaks well of communities and students.

In Quitman for instance, of the 55 scholarship donors, 37 of them were local.

As Quitman High Principal Dana Hamrick described, “Quitman has always been and continues to be a community with a great family base that understands the value of investing in education.”

For a few students, major universities are willing to fund multiple years of study. Among those this year are Alba-Golden’s Justina Peterson, who will be studying nursing at Brigham Young University, and Cody Graves, who is funded by McPherson College to study automobile restoration.

Four universities offered Mineola’s Megan Casper multi-year scholarship funding to entice her attendance, while Quitman’s Jace Reid and Julia Simpkins will be competing, on scholarship, at Oklahoma Wesleyan University and West Texas A&M University, respectively.

Sabria Dean earned an athletic scholarship at Lamar University.    

As impressive as these multi-year university-funded scholarships are, they are few in number. Tyler Junior College (TJC) offers an excellent example of more attainable college funding. TJC offers a $10,000 scholarship, known as the Presidential Scholarship, to any student placing in the academic top ten of area schools.  

This year six Alba-Golden students will be taking advantage of that program. Launching their collegiate careers with the help of this program will be Bralee Littlejohn (biology), Brianna Carney (accounting), Christiana Roberts (social work), Eddie Caffey (physics), Nayeli Camacho (art) and Savannah Edwards (accounting).

The core of scholarship programs, however, is not universities, but rather a small number of standing local trusts. These trusts, according to Alba-Golden academic advisor Amanda Galyean, go to great lengths to “award scholarships based on past and future community service and not simply grade point average.”

In Alba-Golden the names of these trusts communicate service to the community and sacrifice.

Sam and Jo White, Hugh Ragsdale and Conner Curts are among them. Likewise in Mineola, the Hoyt and Marilyn Merritt Wilson, Max and Mary Hudson, the G.W. “Babe” English, and Dan Peacock (a former editor of this newspaper) families manage perennially-giving trusts. 

The longest list of local family scholarships is in Quitman. Memorial scholarships in honor of education stalwarts such as Joe and Evelyn Waddleton and Delbert and Mary Ballard contribute year after year.  Quitman graduates stand a chance to benefit from 15 memorial scholarships given by their neighbors. 

A discussion of scholarships in Quitman would not be complete without mentioning the keen human interest placed by the late Carliss Phillips in awarding the scholarship he and his wife, Lois, had set up. 

As principal Hamrick explained, “It was always an event for the scholarship selectee to be prepared to join the Phillips in their home for dinner. We spent considerable time in preparing the awardee. Carliss Phillips was indicative of the type of community-sponsored support we have always received in Quitman.”   

In addition to families and universities, the list of donors in each community is rounded out by civic organizations, churches and businesses. From Aggie Moms to Young Farmers, Wood County residents step up in support of continuing education. 

Managing the scholarship effort is daunting. Each school attacks the issue in its own unique and equally-effective manner. 

Alba-Golden advisor Galyean describes her efforts as twofold: to be a clearinghouse of scholarship information and to match prospective graduates with appropriate scholarships.

“We meet with each junior and senior twice an academic year for a structured interview,” she described. The intent is to identify each student’s educational or vocational objectives and see how scholarships might assist that effort.

The academic advisor office at Mineola views the scholarship program as one of three legs of their charter.

“Our priority is making sure kids have access to social, emotional and academic support,” stated advisor Foster. After soliciting commitments from scholarship sponsors, her office provides a hard copy of every single local scholarship available.

The complexity of the scholarship program has led Quitman High School to expand the academic advisory office. Counselor Julie Cole fulfills the traditional role as a school counselor, while Amy Park has been hired into the newly-created position as a college career and military readiness advisor.

As the new graduates head out to leverage all that local community support, Mineola counselor Wernecke expressed her gratitude to all the donors.

“This spring was not an easy time to gather together, do the research and match scholarships to individual students,” she explained. “We owe a shout-out to all the donors, who convened the boards and made the decisions for our students.” 

In a season of challenging circumstances, the donor community’s willingness to meet and adjudicate their scholarships is a true success story unto itself. That investment will certainly be paid back in the communities.