Two TCCHS students have been selected for the 2024 Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program.
Todd Central students Mollie Skipworth and Madi Harrison will join around 1,000 other rising high school seniors from all across the Commonwealth this summer for the five-week program. Designed for outstanding high school students, the Governor’s Scholars Program, or GSP, allows students to stay on a college campus free of charge, where they participate in a curriculum consisting of a General Studies class, a more in-depth Focus Area and a Leadership Seminar.
According to the GSP website, the program also features opportunities such as field trips, guest speakers, special events and extracurricular activities, all of which contribute to the “comprehensive educational atmosphere” where scholars can examine and nurture their sense of learning and leadership.
Skipworth and Harrison both initially applied to GSP because they thought it would be a great opportunity to meet new people and experience college life. Skipworth adds she is a little nervous about being away from home for so long, but the program also comes with excellent scholarship opportunities. Many colleges and universities in Kentucky offer a considerable amount of funding for students who take part in the program, with many state schools reporting full-tuition scholarships for up to four years, including the University of Kentucky, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University and more.
Skipworth says the application process was a very lengthy one and took her multiple weeks to complete.
Harrison says another aspect of the application was a personal essay from the applicant’s choice of prompts. She chose to write about the person who impacted her the most — her granddad.
She adds the large number of extracurricular activities she’s involved in definitely helped in her application.
The girls overlap in many of their extracurriculars, with Skipworth also involved with NHS, Beta Club, Rebels for Christ, and FFA, as well as the school’s Media Club. In fact, both students will be FFA officers together next school year.
Harrison says she was originally selected as an alternate for the program, which was a little disappointing to her at first, but was very excited when she found out a spot had opened up for her.
In her application, Harrison signed up for forensic science, healthcare or agriculture for her Focus Area and says she would be happy to receive and study any of the three. Skipworth opted for journalism/mass media, engineering or architecture.
Scholars are typically divided up throughout three Kentucky college campuses — this year’s are Murray State University, Morehead State University and Centre College. Students will find out at the end of May which campus and Focus Area they are assigned to and begin the program around mid to late June.
