NEWBERRY — Four local high school students were recognized by City Council Wednesday as the 2018 recipients of the Newberry-PMPA Community Scholar Scholarship.
Elizabeth Carter, Joseph Yi, Amir Cromer and Ashlin O’Connell will each receive a $500 scholarship to go toward tuition at the state school of their choice.
Both Carter and O’Connell have chosen to attend Clemson University. Cromer will be attending Newberry College, and Yi will be at the University of South Carolina.
As one of 10 cities that receives their electricity from the Piedmont Municipal Power Agency (PMPA), the City of Newberry is providing $2,000 from PMPA to give back to the community.
The agency provides wholesale electric service to its members primarily through a 25 percent ownership interest in Unit Two of the Catawba Nuclear Station in York County.
“Tonight, we congratulate you as well as your parents and grandparents who are here to support you,” said Mayor Foster Senn.
Each student recognized was presented a certificate from the members of City Council.
This was the sixth year that the City of Newberry was able to provide this scholarship to students through PMPA. In the previous five years, a total of 13 students have received the scholarship.
Those selected must have attended, at minimum, three years of high school or home-schooling within the city limits of Newberry and obtained a high school degree. They must also demonstrate personal leadership as reflected in a leadership role related to academic, co-curricular organization and clubs, community or church service, athletics or other similar areas.
Each applicant must have outstanding academic potential as evidenced by a GPA of 2.5 or higher in college-preparatory coursework and a combined score of 950 on the SAT test or the equivalency of 20 on the ACT test.
Because of the amount of applications the city received this year, a personal interview was required of each of the applicants by a scholarship committee. The Committee was comprised of distinguished members of the community selected by the City’s PMPA representatives.
“We had a lot of outstanding applicants and our committee said they were some top-notch young people,” Senn said. “We look forward to hearing of your many successes in the future.”