Community Foundation of Mount Vernon & Knox County scholarship distributions begin this week at area high school awards ceremonies and will exceed $1 million for the first time in the organization’s 74-year history, according to Executive Director Sam Barone.
In all 515 scholarships will be awarded to 393 individual students, totaling $1,013,850, Barone said. The Foundation received a record 490 applications from traditional students, including those graduating high school in 2018 and those already enrolled at post-secondary institutions, as well as 11 applications from non-traditional students, typically adults returning to the college classroom.
Beginning with the senior awards ceremony at Utica High School, Thursday, May 10, Community Foundation board members and staff will present scholarship awards in person to graduating seniors, accompanied in some cases by donors whose generous contributions to the Foundation funded the scholarships. Award letters to already enrolled college students were mailed earlier in the week.
Upcoming high school senior award ceremonies include those at Centerburg (May 15), Fredericktown (May 17), East Knox (May 18), Knox County Career Center (May 22), Danville (May 23), and Mount Vernon (May 24).
The 2018 Community Foundation scholarship program began in January with a new online application system coordinated by Community Foundation Program Manager Lisa Lloyd, and involved more than a dozen volunteer judges, in addition to a multitude of high school faculty and guidance staff.