By Staff
Southwestern Michigan College's two academic support programs geared toward helping at-risk school-aged children to go on to college and then to succeed once in college recently held a celebration.
Honored were six outstanding high school seniors as well as 58 college students at SMC.
These two programs, named Educational Talent Search (ETS) and Excel, respectively, are made possible at SMC through federal grant funding.
Six outstanding seniors were presented with award plaques commemorating their active membership in ETS by SMC's high school adviser, Christopher Stroven, and ETS Director Amy Anderson.
ETS works within the four school districts in Cass County. To be eligible for ETS, students must be enrolled in sixth-12th grade in Cassopolis, Dowagiac, Edwardsburg or Marcellus schools.
Two-thirds of the 800 students in ETS are first-generation-college-bound and meet family income requirements set forth by the Department of Education.
This recognition celebration also recognized 58 Excel students at SMC, all of whom received supplemental awards ranging from $400 to $650 from Excel advisers Vicki Maxa and Tom Huber, as well as Excel Director Donna Austin.
To be eligible for the supplemental award, these students must be active members of Excel, be eligible for need-based federal financial aid and must be making academic progress at the college.
Additionally at the ceremony, four state-level scholarships were awarded on behalf of the Michigan Chapter of the Mid-America Association of Educational Opportunities Program.
These scholarships were highly competitive, with only 14 given throughout the state.
Scholarship recipients will receive $500 for fall semester to a college of their choice.
Recipients were: Alejandro Hernandez and Sara Villegas from Dowagiac Union High School; Rebecca Somerville from Marcellus High School; and Angie Hamilton from Southwestern Michigan College.