58 county students receive scholarships from program

By Staff
Kim West
BELGREEN – For 58 local students, their extra efforts in and out of the classroom have paid off as each has been awarded a $1,000 scholarship to be used at the college of their choice.
There's A Way, Inc., a nonprofit corporation established in 2000, honored 57 seniors and one GED graduate in the annual Salute to Scholars ceremony held at the Belgreen school auditorium last week.
Winners from every eligible high school in Franklin County were recognized as Class 5A Russellville led the way with 19 recipients followed by 2A schools Red Bay (13) and Phil Campbell (12) and 1A's Vina (7) and Belgreen (6). Luci Linkker, a Northwest-Shoals student from Phil Campbell, also received a scholarship as a GED graduate.
There's A Way scholarships, which are funded through corporate and private donations, are based on two major factors, including financial need (50 percent) and merit (50 percent), and any graduating senior or GED candidates in Franklin County are eligible to apply. To date, approximately 700 students have applied for TAW scholarships, and 392 have been awarded in the past seven years.
TAW president John Jolly said the selection committee considers students' workloads in addition to financial need and merit when reviewing their applications.
"We consider the fact that some of these students work 30-40 hours per week," said Jolly, a retired judge who founded TAW and personally interviews nearly 150 applicants each year. "We don't expect every student to have a 4.0 (GPA) when they work that many hours while going to school.
In the interviews, we also ask students about their career interests, favorite subjects and schools they're interested in attending."
A majority of the 2008 winners will receive an advanced diploma this spring, while 37 of them have already taken college courses, including one student who has accumulated a full year's worth of college credit. Fourteen students have siblings already in college, 14 were raised in single-parent families and 24 live in a household with an adjusted gross income level of $35,000 or less.
"I would describe this year's class as impressive, and they have a lot of potential," said Jolly, who challenged the students to continue to work hard and make their families proud during the ceremony finale. "I'm looking forward to seeing how they develop."