The Legacy begins

 

By Stefanie Loveberry

Staff Writer

 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have an extra $3,000 a year in your pocket to help pay for college? 

 

If you are graduating from a Jackson area high school, and want to go to a Jackson area college then listen up, this could be very useful information for you. 

 

The Legacy is a $40 million dollar scholarship program that will offer $3,000 a year for two years, to any Jackson county graduate that attends a local college. Additional money is available for those students to continue at another four-year college in Michigan.

 

This would more than cover the $2,600 cost an average student pays in tuition for a year. The funds come from the Jackson County Community Foundation.

 

In announcing the project, Shelly Saines, foundation president, said it is an effort to improve the image of Jackson County.

 

 “It’s time for us to stop apologizing for who we are,” said Saines.  “We’re known as the prison city.  We can be the education city, one of the premier communities in the state.”

 

Due to this scholarship, JCC is expecting a swell of 800 students.  The legacy will come in effect the 2007-2008 school year, according to an article in a Jackson Citizen Patriot Sept. 19. 

 

Jessica Ellison, a senior at Hanover-Horton High School, said she plans on being one of the 800 new students next year. Having access to Legacy funds will make it even easier, she said.

 

“Yeah, that’s awesome. I wanted to go to JCC anyway,” Ellison said.

 

Jeremy Winchell, a freshman at Spring Arbor University, wishes the Legacy funds had been around when he graduated.

 

“Yes, if it was offered when I graduated I would have gladly taken it,” he said. “College costs a lot of money.”

 

Hanover-Horton Schools Superintendent Linda Brian notes that “this is the start of a countywide high school system, where every student is college-bound.” 

 

    In addition, once qualifying for the program students will be required to maintain a 3.0 grade point average and complete 10 hours of volunteer service work per month.      

 

Information on applying for the scholarships has not yet been revealed. For more information, watch the community foundation’s website at www.jacksoncf.org.