Scholarship night was May 11, from 6-8:30 PM. The night is dedicated to celebrating Salida High School’s seniors who have received both local and national scholarships. 

This year had some changes from past years, which were “…pretty formal. [Y]ou walk across the stage and it just felt pretty impersonal,” Assistant Principal Abigail Cooksey comments. “[This year], there’ll be hors d’oeuvres, and it will be seated.” The event “will still be recognizing each of the scholars, but there will be food, which makes time pass more quickly.” Although the overall time of the event has not been changed, it should feel more engaging to attendees.

“This community really values education, [and] these [funds] come from just regular people in, like, denominations of $500 to $1000 who have set up small scholarship funds,” Cooksey says. The community donates around $120,000 to $150,000 annually. This night is also about ensuring donor contributions are recognized. “I think [this] is really important for us as a school because we’re so grateful to them,” Cooksey mentions. “I think the community really values making sure that students can access their education.”

This community engagement helps students not only in the short-term, but in their future endeavors. As students take on less student debt, it affects how much money they can have in their savings, and eventually have for larger purchases, such as a house. “These … choices that students make at 18 do have compounding effects down the road. And so anytime we can reduce the financial obligation of a student to attend something in their post-secondary career, the more opportunities they’re going to have financially down the road,” said Cooksey.

According to Cooksey, students often put too much emphasis on their GPAs, while most scholarship committees want the focus to be more on a passion, even for students without perfect grades. Cooksey also strongly discouraged the use of AI in scholarship essays. “It’s very obvious if an essay was actually written by a student or if an essay was made by a generative AI. The generative AI essays are really generic, they don’t really say a lot about the student. That, for me as someone who sits on some scholarship committees, is an immediate no,” Cooksey said. 

Cooksey has advice for students hoping for scholarship opportunities; she encourages students to read their emails regularly and keep track of deadlines for scholarship applications. “[Also,] not having the required materials because they didn’t read the instructions. Those basic things that we talk about in every single class, about meeting deadlines and reading instructions, are [the] number one things that are going to make it easier for you to achieve those scholarships down the road.”