Seniors garner more than $1M in scholarships

PRIEST RIVER — The seniors at Priest River Lamanna High School walked with their class over the weekend, taking their first steps into the future.

The days leading up to graduation were just as important, however, as several of the 62 graduates were awarded a total of $1,150,833 in scholarships. Of that amount, $80,925 came directly from local supporters of PRLHS.

“We have a lot of amazing people who have opened up their hearts, and their pocketbooks, to support our seniors,” PRLHS Principal Joe Kren said during the school’s annual scholarship and awards presentation night last Wednesday. “At the same time, we have a lot of seniors who were aggressive in saying, ‘I really want to go to college.’”

The school’s Near Peer mentor and GEAR UP coordinator, Brenna Ballenger, said part of her job is to help students fill out scholarship applications. This year’s class, she said, worked hard over the past few months completing and submitting their applications. Including the colleges that are helping some of the teens out with their future plans, nearly 50 different groups awarded scholarships to the seniors.

Representatives from many of those groups presented the scholarships throughout the evening last week, including David Ackley with the Beatrice Johnson Charitable Trust. Ackley said he set up the fund more than 30 years ago with Glennard Johnson and this was the last year of funds available for annual award of $8,000 for a PRLHS student. The Glennard Johnson scholarship, which Ackley also presented, he said will continue.

While some scholarships come to an end, new ones arrive each year as well. The Lexi Minish Memorial scholarship was implemented this year, after the Priest River youth died in a car crash in 2017, at the age of 10. The tears came to Leanna Minish’s eyes as her eyes as she spoke about her daughter and what a “beautiful, fun-loving young girl she was, and how she would go out of her way to make people happy.

“Because Lexi wasn’t able to graduate high school or go to college, I thought how wonderful it would be to help other students achieve this goal in Lexi’s honor,” Minish said.

Three PRLHS seniors were awarded $500 each from the Lexi Minish Memorial fund.

During the ceremony, three of the seniors were also recognized for their accomplishment in graduating with their associate degrees from North Idaho College on May 17. Gabby Hagman, Beverly Landeros and Christina Tefft each graduated with their two-year degree before graduating high school.

Schoolwide, PRLHS had 58 students enrolled in 86 dual-credit courses, Kren said, for a total of 512 credits. The state provides up to $4,125 in direct financial aid to high school students interested in college and career-readiness courses. The PRLHS students enrolled this year earned more than $33,700 in funding toward advanced opportunities, Kren said.

In addition, eight students from the PRLHS class of 2019 are heading off to serve their country in various branches of the military, and each were recognized during Wednesday’s ceremony as well.

Before the evening was over, teachers awarded students in grades 9-12 for their academic achievements throughout the school year, and honor cords were presented to seniors for the Business Professionals of America, NIC and PRLHS honors. The ceremony came to a close with the presentation medals to Tefft, who was chosen as the 2019 valedictorian, and Chloe Livingston as salutatorian.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.