Hard work from local students and teachers have earned two Gates Millennium Scholarships.
Erkeneff: They get everything paid for entirely, for up to ten years so they can go on to graduate school, it’s an amazing, amazing scholarship. It took a lot of effort and there’s some teachers that we really want to give a shout out too as well because they spent countless hours so that they can get their education and get this great opportunity that they might not otherwise have.”
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Pegge Erkeneff said Nikiski High’s Tiffany Lopez worked with her English teacher Laura Niemczyk to win, and Seward High School’s Malia Acovak worked with her English Teacher Jennifer Swander.
That scholarship is awarded to 1,000 students after an intensive application process.
Erkeneff: “It was a really big process and we actually did some training for our English Language Arts teachers last year through a program that helped the teachers learn everything that they needed to do to help the students be able to get these scholarships and apply and we had some semifinalists as well. So I think in the coming years we’re going to see more coming from the Kenai and it’s really exciting.”
Nikiski’s Lopez has expressed interest in becoming a veterinarian while Seward’s Acovak said she would like to go into the medical field but isn’t sure about the specifics yet.
Overall Alaskan students were awarded 6 of the 1,000 scholarships.
