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Fort Recovery High School
FORT RECOVERY - School board members at this week's regular meeting learned about a new scholarship aimed at rewarding seniors for their hard work and incentivizing them to attend a higher education institution in Ohio.
The Governor's Merit Scholarship was unveiled on Dec. 4 and offers up to $5,000 a year in financial assistance to high school seniors who graduate in the the top 5% of their class, according to high school principal Ryan Steinbrunner.
The scholarship is renewable for four years, meaning scholarship recipients could receive up to $20,000 in financial assistance.
"All seniors in the state, the top 5% for each school, are offered this scholarship based on class rankings," he said. "We have four slots open here at Fort Recovery, so we were able to offer the scholarship to the top four students in the senior class last week."
Fort Recovery calculates class rank based on students' cumulative grade point average, honors courses, SAT score and total credits earned. The formula to calculate class rank can be found on the district's website under the GPA and class rank section of the guidance homepage.
The scholarship's renewal eligibility is based on a student making satisfactory academic progress, which is defined as maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above, completing a minimum of 20 credit hours per year and demonstrating appropriate progress toward earning a degree, according to an overview of the scholarship.
Although scholarship winners were just recently announced, future recipients will be notified of the offer no later than Sept. 1, after the student's junior year. This is to ensure students are informed of the scholarship with enough time to decide where to apply to college, according to the scholarship overview.
There are some caveats, though.
"The hitch to it is that to accept it, you have to attend a school in Ohio. That was the governor's purpose … to drive more students to schools in Ohio," Steinbrunner said.
He noted two students offered the scholarship have committed to attend schools outside the state.
"So obviously we talked to them about (how) this is something to consider and they don't have to accept it," he said.
Board member Sean Kahlig asked if the scholarship can be passed down to the next student in line if one of the top four Fort Recovery students declines it.
"It's the top four and that's it," Steinbrunner said. "So if one of them declines it, I can't go to (the next student in line)."
More information about the scholarship can be found at http://tinyurl.com/govmerit.
Board members also scheduled an organizational meeting at 6 p.m. Jan. 8 in the community room at the high school, immediately followed by the regular board meeting.
