Seniors earn scholarships and money to attend college

A group of Ritenour seniors have been awarded major financial incentives to attend universities next year

SKYLAR POWERS Staff Reporter

Many Ritenour seniors have been awarded with very prestigious and impressive scholarships from around the country, recognizing the success that they have attained both inside and outside of the classroom.

Ritenour has students going as far as New York University, as close as Webster University, and many other places in between.

A huge part of many students’ senior years is preparing for college. With this comes applying for and anticipating the announcement with hope of receiving scholarships and financial aid.

Scholarships are very competitive among every applicant. Senior Chloe Sapp received a full ride scholarship of $122,000.

“50 people were chosen as finalists and I’m not sure the exact answer, but I believe only five people got chosen for the full ride,” Sapp said.

Similar to Sapp, senior Andy Vo received a full ride of $325,000 to Washington University.

“To my knowledge around 4-5 people received the full ride to Washington University,” Vo explained.

Because of the high stake competition, the process of applying and preparing for these can be very demanding and taxing for the students.

“I was preparing practice interview questions that I had found online every day after school and Ms. Beamer even practiced with me for about an hour one day. I wanted to make sure I was prepared for anything,” Sapp said.

Oftentimes students attempt to prepare by working extremely hard throughout their entire high school careers. For Vo, it did not come down to an interview, but was a culmination of four years of hard work.

“I made sure to have a perfect GPA, took lots of AP courses, volunteered a lot, and was active outside of school,” Vo shared.

In the case of senior Evelyn Araiza Garcia, she found out she received a scholarship for $80,000 from NYU and was in complete shock.

“I don’t know the exact requirements for it since I didn’t apply for it when I applied (to NYU), they just gave it to me when they accepted me. I think it has to do with my financial aid need,” Araiza Garcia said. “I was even watching “Regular Show” right before finding out, so it was pretty funny.”

Sapp also shared a very unique experience in discovering the results.

“The email saying that I got chosen actually went to my spam email and I didn’t see it for two whole days. Once I saw that email I didn’t really believe it, but instantly felt a lot of relief as what was keeping me from choosing schools was the cost,” Sapp said.

Families and parents of students are very supportive and they were very excited to learn about what their child has in store for them.

“My parents were right there when I found out and it felt really nice to make them as happy as they were in that moment,” Sapp said.

Araiza Garcia also was able to share the good news with her family.

“My jaw dropped and I turned to my parents and told them the news and they were shocked as well,“ Araiza Garcia explained.

Once the stressful part of applying and working so hard non-stop is over, they finally get to breathe and bask in their excitement for their futures. Senior Caroline Groceman, who will receive a full scholarship to attend Maryville University, says that this eases much of her worries about future finances.

“I was very grateful that I was able to reach my goals and not have to worry about doing so financially,” Senior Caroline Groceman said.

Clark chose this occupation because of the opportunity to serve families during their time of bereavement. He is tasked with helping attendees celebrate their loved one’s in the best way possible.

Throughout the duration of his employment, Clark reports the weirdest thing that happened was when he was removing a person from a nursing home.

“I was removing a loved one from a nursing home, and the loved one's arm slid slightly out of position and I thought they were alive,” Clark said.

Although it may not be the typical career path of every high school student, Clark has found his passion and plans to continue his journey in the mortuary field.

Clark has had a lifelong dream of being a Funeral

Director and plans on attending St Louis Community College at the start of next term. He plans to major in Funeral Service Education, also known as, mortuary science. After completing those college courses, Clark will take the Missouri State Test to become a licensed funeral director in the state of Missouri.

“We all have a calling and being a funeral director is one of those callings just like nursing and teaching. I have seen Terrence go from answering the phones at the funeral parlor to driving and picking up the cadavers from hospitals. He has a great work ethic and has the skills to handle one of life's hardest jobs as he is working with people during a traumatic event in the loss of loved ones,” Hampton said.