Every year, FHN graduates hundreds of students. These students leave the school and begin to embark on a new journey in their lives. Most students choose to continue on their educations at a university or college. FHN has many scholarships offered to seniors to help aid them in their finances throughout college and, this year, a new scholarship will be offered to students. Journalism teacher Aaron Manfull and principal Andy Downs started a scholarship to go to a senior who is planning on majoring in and going into education. Along with Manfull and Downs, social studies teacher Kim Coil has taken on a role in the development of the scholarship.

“Mr. Manfull approached Mr. Downs and I kind of jumped in after that,” Coil said. “We used to have a scholarship through the teachers association that was very similar to it that I kind of spearheaded back in the 90s. I was so happy to hear him wanting to do something like this again.”

The teachers that started the process created the scholarship to try and promote future educators as well as to help pay for the student’s education. They hope to see the recipients go far and become strong educators to help future students. The scholarship is going to be handed out annually.

“No matter where you go, college is expensive, and I know that we just want to lessen that burden,” Coil said. “Education is a profession that’s not going to make you a ton of money, especially not at first. If you come into education with a lot of debt, you are just really floundering for a long while. It’s just harder for them to have to pay those college loans and we just want to make it a little easier for them. I know we won’t have a ton of money to give away, but what we can give away hopefully will make a difference in somebody’s education.”

The money that the scholarship is made up of is reliant solely on teachers and administrators from the building. The faculty grouped together to donate money into a pool. The scholarship will then be given out to one student at the end of the year. Because of this, the amount of the scholarship will vary from year to year. The applications for this scholarship went out in late February and is due tomorrow.

The application is a one page front and back paper. It asks for some of the basic information about the student and what they have done at school, what they have done outside of school and teacher recommendations. It also asks for a 500 word essay about what the student’s plans are and why education is important to them, how they might make a difference in education and their reasons for going into it.

“On the application, we will be looking for students who are deeply interested in continuing their career as an educator,” Coil said. “We want to make sure that we give it to someone who will do great things with it.”

Applications for the scholarship are available on the school’s scholarship website and it is also located in the cart in the guidance office where all the scholarships are located. The recipient of the scholarship will be announced at Senior Awards Night.

“I think that the scholarship a great thing,” head principal Andy Downs said. “I am sure that we have many great students who would do a great job with their future endeavors and it is wonderful that the staff here are helping with that.”