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Saturday, May 05, 2012 By Rachel Kuhr
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The current JD senior class is on pace to rack up the largest dollar amount of college scholarships JD has ever seen.
Senior class counselor Roxanne Kammerer takes no credit for the students’ success in earning their way to their chosen colleges. But she hopes she has given them the resources they need to find scholarships for themselves, based on their own merits.
“This is the brightest academic class that we’ve seen in the history of Juan Diego graduates, so I know that our students have received many scholarship offers from a variety of institutions already,” Kammerer says. “I’m expecting it to be the largest amount [of scholarships] that we’ve seen so far.”
JD is full of college-bound students looking for opportunities. They choose classes that better prepare them, and they strive to excel academically. Scholarships provide financial support and serve to broaden their educational options. Scholarships are offered through specific colleges and universities as well as private sources. Students earn them for many reasons, such as academics, sports, music, and theater.
Tyler Cain is a senior at JD and serves as student body president. She recently won a one thousand-dollar scholarship from the Atria Senior Living Center in Sandy. The assignment was to write an essay about an older person’s life experiences. Cain worked on it independently since this scholarship is not associated with the college she plans to attend.
“I think I invested a lot of myself in the story I wrote, so when I actually was rewarded for it, there was no other feeling than euphoria,” Cain says.
The Atria Senior Living Center offers this scholarship to one student each from Alta High School, Jordan High School, and JD. Because of the service JD students have done for the center over the years, they wanted to show their appreciation.
At the end of the school year, Kammerer will total the scholarship amounts all students receive. This includes students who receive multiple scholarships. Each year, JD students earn roughly one-half to three-fourths of a million dollars in scholarships.
Scholarship search engines allow students to find matches that suit them. It may be an application or competition; some are big and others are small. One such search engine is financialaid.utah.edu/scholarships. This option appeals to students attending the University of Utah. All scholarships for this year have already been distributed, but JD students planning to attend the University of Utah may be able to look into them for next year.
“What I’d like to tell students is don’t wait until you’re a senior to learn about scholarships,” Kammerer says.
She and Cain believe the search for scholarships should begin well before senior year. Students need time to find the options available before they can consider them and prepare for them. Because this can be a long process, it is a good idea to begin looking early.
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