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“She’ll do fine in D.C. Thurman Francis and Smyrna High did a lot to prepare her and she’s got a good head on her shoulders,” Brenda Farr said.
Riverdale High Principal Tom Nolan did not have a figure for his school, but said if he had to guess his graduated class would fall in line with Oakland and Blackman, which both reported students accepting $3 million this year. The Riverdale class of 2010 had $4 million in scholarship offers.
“We’ve got people going all over the country and the scholarships are still coming in,” he said. “We have one that signed a gymnastics scholarship (Tuesday).”
Emily Sellers, one of Riverdale’s 10 valedictorians, received a full scholarship to Dartmouth University, an Ivy League school in New Hampshire. Tuition, fees, room and board at the school are $58,918 and all scholarships are evaluated from year-to-year, the university’s website states.
Scholarship offers at Smyrna High exceeded $2 million, said guidance counselor Tammy Hickey.
“We have students who received full four-year rides to Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, the U.S. Naval Academy, Pittsburgh, Howard University and David Lipscomb,” she said. “These six students alone account for nearly $1 million.”
La Vergne High graduate Rashad Russell was one of five Tennessee students to earn a full scholarship from the Gates Millennium Scholars Program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The scholarship covers all tuition, fees, books and living expenses for undergraduate studies and an additional $25,000 toward graduate work.
Russell plans to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where out-of-state tuition is between $40,000 and $42,000 for this fall’s incoming freshman, the university’s website indicates.
At Siegel High, half of the 500-member graduating class had a GPA 3.0 or higher, said guidance counselor Peggy Harrell, making them all eligible to receive a Hope Scholarship, which is funded from Tennessee Lottery funds.
Valedictorian Connor Dugosh received a total of $22,000, only because he applied to one school.