UKB student wins Gates Scholarship

By Jay Ok
Sam Levin

An enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians has been picked as a 2006-07 Gates Millennium Scholar.

Jay High School senior Marissa Hawley is one of only a handful of teenagers nationwide selected for the scholarship, which covers a student’s unmet financial needs as determined by their federal financial aid application.

“I feel I have been blessed,” Hawley said. “I think I have been awarded the best scholarship I could ever ask for.”

First established by computer magnate Bill Gates and his wife Melinda in 1999, the scholarship is a 20-year, $1 billion initiative to promote healthy academics and reward deserving students. To be considered for the program a youngster must not only have impressive academic, leadership and service credentials, but also answer questions about themselves.

A percentage of the scholarships are earmarked for American Indian and Alaska Native students, with those applications handled by the American Indian Graduate Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This year the center reports they received 1,500 letters of interest and had to pare that number down to 150.

Hawley, an honor student and member of her high’s school track and field team, made the cut.

Shari Kamp, director of the Johnson O’Malley program in Jay, said Hawley’s selection as a scholar is both "an incredible honor and opportunity.”

In order to be eligible for the program, a potential applicant must be nominated. Kemp nominated Hawley and says she was “every bit as excited as Marissa was when we got the news. I am honored to have played a part. She is a wonderful young lady and I look forward to seeing what the future has in store for her.”

Hawley plans on attending Northeastern State University in Tahlequah next fall.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation administers the program and officials there say since its inception seven years ago they have awarded the Gates Scholarship to 9,050 minority students.