Five Ector County ISD students were presented with Pathways By One Objective Scholarships and an additional scholarship in honor of Anthony Bolton on Wednesday.
The Anthony Bolton Scholarship honors Bolton’s legacy by supporting students who have shown resilience, leadership, and dedication to their studies, a news release said.
Director of College & Career Readiness Rico Enriquez said the Pathways By One Objective Scholarship recognizes students who have demonstrated academic excellence, personal strength of character and perseverance.
Recipients were in their senior year of high school. They were Rihanna Coker from Odessa Collegiate Academy who is going to Texas Southern University; Ivania Montessino Rios, a Permian High School graduate who will be going to Odessa College to start and then University of Texas Permian Basin; Alexia Noda Rodriguez, a PHS graduate who will be starting at Odessa College; Kubra Kocak, a New Tech Odessa graduate who will be going to UT Austin; and Ashlynn Elliott, a PHS graduate who will be going to Sam Houston State University.
They will each get a $5,000 scholarship.
Geremy Willard of One Objective said the organization started almost five years ago by a group of men in the community from various backgrounds, that had various challenges throughout life.
Their goal was to come together as a way of supporting ECISD students and show them a positive pathway to success in areas outside of athletics or entertainment.
They hold fundraisers throughout the year. One of them is a golf tournament and that’s where they get most of their funds, Willard said.
“We want to show them that there are hard working individuals in all different areas and walks of life, that you can make a positive impact on your community and it doesn’t have to be in these particular areas. It can be elsewhere, so the idea behind the scholarships was to give these students a pathway to their success,” Willard said.
Part of getting the scholarship was to write an essay. They looked at GPA, extracurricular activities whether they were work related or in school.
Willard said all the essays were very well written and it was tough to decide on scholarship recipients.
He added that the students will make a positive impact on the community and the world at large.
Enriquez said essays had to be 250-500 word essays, describing adversity they had gone through or something they had overcome in their lives the way to accomplishing their high school graduation and ultimately acceptance into college.
Students who are in 12th grade are eligible for the scholarship and they needed to be accepted to a college or university already, Enriquez said.
