Scholarship Program Inducts 15 Students

Newspaper reporter and Gale Scholar Antwon Martin addresses, above, and reports on, below, the 2013 induction ceremony.

Story by Antwon Martin, The Register-Mail; published May 3, 2013; reprinted by permission

Fifteen Galesburg eighth-graders were inducted into the George Washington Gale Scholars program Thursday afternoon. Attending the ceremony were guest speaker and Knox College President Teresa Amott, Carl Sandburg College President Lori Sundberg, District 205 Superintendent Bart Arthur, and Gale Scholars Program Director Les Hunter along with new inductees and their families.

Also speaking were GHS student Morganne Malesker, CSC student Dana Cliff, and myself, a student at Knox College. All of us are Gale Scholars.

The Gale Scholars program offers financial and academic support to first-generation, income-eligible students, paying for two years of tuition at Carl Sandburg College and two years at Knox College. Students with a consistently high GPA through high school may elect to go straight to Knox for all four years.

"The Gale Scholars program demonstrates ... being involved in the community and caring about education, providing the opportunity and providing financial resources to the students," Hunter said.

The Gale Scholars Class of 2017 inductees are Amber Colwell, Taylor Davis, Jessica Decker, Tarynn Lewis, Suleimi Lopez-Garcia, Rose Maciejewski, Savannah Miyler, Kayla Morrow, Jasmyn Pacheco, Emely Quintanilla, Hailey Sedgwick, Kaylynn Smith, Breanna Wade, Tyce Wade and Sarah Ward.

I had the opportunity to talk with some of them after the ceremony.

"It's just an honor," Taylor Davis said. "I knew I'd go to college, I didn't know where or how."

Like many his age, Davis doesn't know what he wants to do as a career. "This program will help me figure it out," he said. "I'm excited for the experience."

"I didn't think we'd be able to afford going to college," Smith said.

Her story is like that of many students, me included. Tuition alone is over $36,000 per year at Knox.

Smith plans to be a psychologist after graduating. "I want to help people who have problems and feel they can't talk about them," she said.

"Without (the Gale Scholars program) I probably wouldn't be able to go to college," Morrow said

Morrow had considered going to art school in Savannah, Georgia before being accepted as a Gale Scholar. "I want to be an art teacher, probably at middle school."

Sedgwick first heard about the program from an aunt who works at Churchill Jr. High School. Like Morrow and Smith, Sedgwick has an idea what she wants to do after graduation. "I want to be a seventh-grade life science teacher," she said. "I really enjoy science experiments and labs."

They have plenty of time to decide.

George Washington Gale Scholars Induction Ceremony, May 2, 2013, Lincoln Room, Knox College