On Wednesday, June 20 and West Virginia’s Birthday a gathering of the ten finalists along with their parents joined sponsors at West Virginia Wesleyan College to honor the nominees and announce the winner of the 2012 West Virginia Scholarship.
The nominees and their respective schools were: Jackson Carey, Brooke High School; Andrew Mellert, Ripley High School; Emily Stasny, Richwood High School; Mary Casto, Musselman High School; Jordan Danko, Ann Flesher & Kathalyn Maxon, Ravenswood High School; Summer Peyton, Logan High School; Rachel Ransom, Jefferson High School; and, Allie Roberts, Parkersburg High School.
Jackson Carey won the top prize – a four-year FULL scholarship to Wesleyan valued at over $125,000. Jackson is a straight A student who takes honors classes. He’s involved in school clubs and plays on the tennis team, gone to leadership programs, performed 250 hours of community service over the last year and he volunteers at a daycare center.
Jackson plans to study optometry with a long-range goal to open a pediatric optometry clinic to treat disadvantaged children.
The following was sent by Jackson:
“Now that the dust has cleared and my mom and I got home, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you and all the sponsors associated with the WV Scholar Program. I still am overwhelmed and can’t stop smiling. Because of this program, I feel like I can concentrate on working towards achieving my goals, and not have to worry about how I would be able to do this.
I know that this scholarship will change my life, and I promise you and the other sponsors that I will try my best to justify everyone’s faith in me. I will keep in touch.
Thank you again for this opportunity.”
Congratulations to Jackson and to all of the nominees. Thanks to West Virginia Wesleyan, Friends of Coal, Energize West Virginia with Natural Gas, the WV Forestry Association, Metronews and Colonel Marvin and Elaine Culpepper.