Published: July 14, 2008 12:35 pm            

Students earn McCasland scholarships

With the rising costs of college tuition, scholarships play an important role in helping the next generation of college students pay for their education.

The McCasland Foundation is one organization working toward giving high school students, and the recent high school graduates, a chance to meet the needs of higher education. In May, the foundation gave 10 Duncan High School graduating seniors $12,000 scholarships to their universities of choice. The scholarship each student was awarded will pay $3,000 a year for four years.

The students who received the scholarships represent five universities. Those schools are University of Central Oklahoma, Cameron University, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University and Southern Nazarene University.

Duncan students who received the scholarship are:

UCO — Cherise Bowens, Mireya Contreras and Lauren Reames.

CU — Norma Dominguez and Corey Longest.

OU — Rocio Garcia.

OSU — Caleb Knight, Luke Rightmire and Brandon Smiley.

SNU — Daniel Wilkinson.

The scholarships were awarded by Barbara Braught. Braught represented the McCasland Foundation during the DHS senior scholarship ceremony.

Reames said she felt honored to receive the substantial scholarship from the organization.

“It meant a lot to get something that big,” she said.

Wilkinson said he was surprised to receive the scholarship.

“I wasn’t expecting to get anything,” he said. “Then I found out I had $12,000. It was a big relief.”

In Garcia’s position, getting the scholarship was a blessing for her and her family.

“I was excited because it was money for school,” she said.

In addition to the scholarships received from the foundation, those 10 seniors also received other scholarships at the scholarship program. For instance, Bowens received a scholarship from the Black History Society after being elected the 2008 Miss Black Duncan. Smiley received the Joe Moore Award, which was the last scholarship given at the event.

Numerous other scholarships were given, which the students said would help them with the next four years of school.

For Reames, scholarships like the one from the McCasland Foundation will assist her and her family when she goes to college.

“With my mom being the only income and still having a sister in high school, this will help a lot,” she said. “I’ll only have to worry about grocery money.”

Garcia said the other scholarships she accepted will also aid her in garnering the necessary funding for college.

“I think we have my first year covered,” she said. “I was happy.

“The only other thing is books. I do have some money left over from the scholarships for books.”

Wilkinson said the scholarships he received should help him get through college, as long as he works hard in his classes.

“Hopefully, I got enough to get through school,” he said. “I just need to keep my grades up.”

        

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