Students overcome to receive scholarships
WALLACE/MULLAN — Local high school students Sheyenne Camacho and Skylar Hill from Wallace Jr./Sr. High School, and Hannah Cote from Mullan High School were selected as Horatio Alger State Scholarship award recipients.
State scholarships are awarded to eligible students in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The program specifically assists high school students who have faced and overcome great obstacles in their young lives.
Each scholarship winner is worth $10,000 each.
Cote, a senior at Mullan Jr./Sr. High School, plans on going to college to pursue nursing, but the financial obligations in doing so exceed her and her family’s control.
“I was really excited to hear that I had been awarded this scholarship because this money helps me fill in some of the gaps in cost,” Cote said. “Growing up in Mullan, in a middle-class family, my FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) just doesn’t help me. There’s not much diversity in the Silver Valley, which means all the same people are applying for the same scholarships.”
While Cote doesn’t truly associate herself with personal adversity, her charity work with her foundation, Kenya Kids Idaho, showed her willingness to jump right in to help the people in Kenya overcome their own adversity.
At Wallace Jr./Sr. High School, seniors Camacho and Hill faced and have overcome personal adversity.
Camacho spoke of growing up in a home that struggled with finances and even experienced homelessness at one point.
“I just wanted to push — to be the best I could be,” Camacho said. “That means getting the best grades I can, to work as hard as I can, to get scholarships so that I can go on to college and better myself.”
Camacho plans on enrolling at the University of Idaho, where she will pursue a degree in biological engineering.
Prior to coming to live with her grandmother, Hill was an infant whose parents abused drugs.
After being taken as far away as Missouri, by her father, her grandmother found her and gained sole custody of her granddaughter.
“My grandma is on full disability and can’t work. That’s our income,” Hill said. “My grandma is amazing, I wouldn’t be where I am without her. She’s done so much for me, I want to be as good as I can for her.”
Hill is planning to pursue a degree in pre-physical therapy at the University of Idaho.
Each scholarship is funded by Horatio Alger Members who, like the scholars, have experienced challenges but ultimately overcame them to become successful business and civic leaders.
To be eligible to apply for a Horatio Alger State Scholarship, the applicants had to meet the following criteria:
- Be enrolled full time as a high school senior in the U.S.; be progressing normally toward graduation in spring/summer 2020 with plans to enter a college in the U.S. no later than the fall following graduation.
- Exhibit a strong commitment to pursue and complete a bachelor’s degree at an accredited nonprofit public or private institution in the U.S. (students may start their studies at a two-year institution and then transfer to a four-year institution).
- Demonstrate critical financial need ($55,000 or lower adjusted gross family income is required).
- Be involved in co-curricular and community service activities.
- Display integrity and perseverance in overcoming adversity.
- Maintain a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0; and
- Be a U.S. citizen.