Every April, seniors in Sheboygan County go to scholarship night. Scholarship night is an eventful night for seniors to get scholarships from many organizations around Sheboygan. The scholarships help students pay for college without worrying about getting into more student debt. So many students and staff put a lot of work into Scholarship Night. One of Sheboygan South’s Counselors, Regan Haulotte, has been a chairperson since 2017.

Many people on the committee help decide who gets scholarships. Regan Houlatte said, “I have been South High’s Scholarship chairperson since 2017. We have an outstanding committee of school counselors, administrators, and teachers who work together to choose scholarship recipients. The Counseling Center secretaries, especially Mrs. Valdez, also play a key role in the scholarship process. Many other people–custodians, stage crew students, etc.–work together to make Scholarship Night a great success.” Since Houlatte started working and running scholarship night, no class broke a school record until the 2o24 class came along. The class of 2024 broke three records. The records showed the most money given, the fastest amount of time, and the number of students given scholarships. Houlatte was asked, “How did it feel to know that the class of 2024 broke 3 records.” Houlatte said, “It felt very rewarding that this year’s Scholarship Night was a record-breaker.” Houlatte also said, “ The final total of awards given at Scholarship Night is $901,538. It is absolutely amazing how so many people in our community are willing to give generously to support our graduating seniors with their education goals.” The record of the number of students who received scholarships was broken, with 85 seniors getting scholarships. Some students only got one scholarship, but many others got many scholarships. Cheyenne Stirdivant got six scholarships, all for different amounts of money. Valerie Montanez got the Ruth DeYoung Merit Kohler scholarship, which is a very prestigious scholarship to get.

With so many students getting scholarships it’s hard just to pick two seniors out of the 85 seniors that got a scholarship. Many of the 85 students worked so hard applying for scholarships. Seniors Valerie and Cheyenne both were asked how many scholarships they applied too.  Seniors Cheyenne said, “ I applied for 18 scholarships,” and Valerie said, “Overall I probably applied for around 25 scholarships. As of right now, I have not heard back from SPEF which made up a larger amount of those applications.” Cheyenne and Valerie put the work into their scholarships, and it paid off. Valerie won 7 scholarships with the Ruth DeYoung Merit Kohler Scholarship. Valerie was asked how she felt about winning the Ruth DeYoung Merit Kohler Scholarship, and she said, “I am very excited to have won a Ruth DeYoung Kohler Merit scholarship! I put a lot of effort into making the best art portfolio I could manage and was extremely happy to see my hard work pay off.” Cheyenne also asked how she felt winning the six scholarships, and she said, “I was honest surprised to receive them and was joyed that my hard work was recognized and my hard work payed off.” Winning these scholarships can also help not just with paying for scholarships but also with their futures. Cheyenne said, “These scholarships will help me pay for college and help me achieve double majoring to help me in my future career” and Valerie said, “These scholarships will help me fund an exciting and stress-free future. Not having the burden of school loans weighing me down during my first years of school will allow me to settle into Madison and seek new artistic endeavors.” These scholarships can help seniors going into college to be in less debt and also help them with their dream carrer. 

As Nelson Madison once said “Education is the most powerful which you can use to change the world.”