Program helps Wallace students gain scholarships

A Wallace High School program has helped the class of 2006 amass $900,000 in scholarships this year.

Twenty-three seniors from the 39-student class plan on furthering their education, which “we think is a very good percentage,” said Marcy Hayman.

Hayman is a school volunteer who along with the school counselor Robert Benefit created Wallace High’s Career Counseling Program, which helps students apply for scholarships.

Students are introduced to the program in the seventh grade, learning that their chances of winning scholarships improve through academic achievement and participation in extracurricular activities and community service.

This year’s high amount of scholarships was due in part to two of the graduating seniors, Ross Hartman and Wayne Murie, receiving full scholarship awards to service academies.

The remaining 21 students received a little more than $300,000, with many of those scholarships renewable each year. That’s up 300 percent from when the program first started in 2004, Hayman said.

High school seniors face many obstacles in applying for college admission, not the least of which is rising tuition costs. That’s why a small of group volunteers and Benfit got together three years ago to create the Career Counseling Program.

“We wanted to make sure our kids had every opportunity to better their education,” said Hayman, of Osburn.

Their first project was to organize the stacks of scholarship information laying about after being moved from the old high school building, see which ones were still valid and form a data base.

Next was to educate the students and the parents about scholarship opportunities.

“It’s pretty overwhelming to go from 12th grade into the real world,” says Benfit.

Today, nine volunteers take turns working with students every Wednesday and Friday mornings and Monday nights. They create a packet for each ninth-grader to accumulate letters of recommendation, school participation, community service records – anything they think will help when applying for college scholarships.

Volunteers help students explore possible career paths, matching them with high school courses that prepare them for learning beyond graduation. Additionally, they help get students to do volunteer work in the community.

“The first year,” said Hayman, “we focused on seniors.” The program expanded to include juniors the following year, while exposing younger students to its benefits.

“This year the seventh-graders had an idea on how to compete in the scholarship programs,” Hayman says. “Through evolution this is happening.”

The program works closely with North Idaho College and the University of Idaho. The Frank Morback Foundation gave $60,000 to students, with scholarships of $1,200 to attend NIC that are renewable every year, and gives the program $2,000 a year to cover printing costs. Organizers are also reaching out to the community, giving presentations to groups including the Lions and Rotary clubs and the Chamber of Commerce.

Benfit says the effort is paying off for students.

“The quality of the students’ application and the number of students applying for the scholarships is improving,” he said.

Hayman agrees.

“As long as we continue what we have done in the last three years we are successful because we are offering students opportunities to go and do whatever they want in life.”