Area school districts awarded 24 scholarships totaling $68,200 to Class of 2026 high school students, with abother $69,500 to students with renewable students.
The awarded graduates recently graduated from Montezuma-Cortez High School, Dolores High School, Mancos High School, Dove Creek High School and a home school program, with awards ranging from $500 to $4,000. While some students will attend schools close to Montezuma County, such as Pueblo Community College Southwest, Fort Lewis College and Colorado State University, others will attend out of state schools like St. Olaf College (Minnesota) and Baylor University (Texas).
“The scholarships are intended to give our future historians, physicians, business leaders, welders and others a boost as they begin chasing their dreams,” Onward! said in a press release sent to The Journal.
There are multiple Onward! scholarships that students can apply for. This year, 15 different scholarships were presented to graduates.
Recipients of the Aikin Scholarship in Memory of Erik and Jeffrey Hobbs are Remy Dillon; Lucas Figueroa; Noah Higinbotham; Rosalinda Phillips; Olivia Jukes; Colten Vannest and Amelie Cover; all of Mancos. Eflin Ozdil of Dolores received the Bill and Peg Rees scholarship.
Jonathan Sandner of Williamsburg Academy; Amita Crowley and Camryn Oliver of MCHS; and Dillon received the Larry Larsen scholarship. The Leonard Cain Medical scholarship went to Cover, Higinbotham, Jadyn Gorsuch of Dolores, Oliver and Sandner.
Gorsuch, Higinbotham, Oliver and Sandner received the Hoover Endowed scholarship, while the MCHS Alumni scholarship was awarded to Crowley and Daniel Thornton of MCHS.
Aubrie Matthias of MCHS received the Michele Yvonne Taylor scholarship, and Crowley, Matthias, Oliver and Micah Stembridge, all of MCHS, received the Roland R. Schneider scholarship. Oliver also received the Shaun M. McAndrew scholarship.
Iyana Hafner and Oliver of MCHS received the Tri-City Soccer scholarship, and Taylor Hampton of Dove Creek received the Joel Stevenson scholarship.
Siana Elliott and Jasper Gilliland of MCHS, Madison North of Dove Creek and Oliver received the Montezuma County Fair Junior Livestock Sale 1st Year (Stakeholders) scholarship. Kenzi Whipple of MCHS received the Montezuma County Fair Junior Livestock Sale 2nd Year (Stakeholders) scholarship.
Wyatt Oliver of MCHS received the Cortez Youth Basketball scholarship, while Keeley Clarke of MCHS, Adam Martinez and Phillips of Mancos received the Knights Memorial Scholarship.
“This investment in students’s continuing education is primarily a result of families and organizations establishing trusts with the Onward! Foundation that have grown steadily over the past 20 years,” Onward! said. “Many of the donors opted to offer renewable scholarships to provide an added incentive for students to pursue and complete a college education.”
bduran@the-journal.com
