The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD) announced their annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Award Winners. Centennial H.S. students Kalonji Gabrielle and Polite Aaliyah, and Central H.S. students Kazadi Faith, Kim Eunice, Sandil Samaira, and Abudayeh Gassan are the award winners.
MTD awards the MLK scholarship to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by providing scholarship assistance to high school seniors bound for higher education who demonstrate by word and deed commitment to Dr. King’s dream for America.
Each scholarship is worth $1,000 renewable for four years. Students choosing to attend the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign will receive an additional $2,000 yearly in matching scholarship funds. Students choosing to attend Tougaloo College near Jackson, Mississippi will receive an additional $1,000 yearly in matching scholarship funds. The total potential “Living the Dream” scholarship over four years is $12,000 at the University of Illinois and $8,000 at Tougaloo College.
If a scholarship recipient chooses to attend Parkland College for two years with a commitment to transfer to the University of Illinois, the U of I will match the $1,000 “Living the Dream” scholarship during the student’s third and fourth years.
Applicants must be high school seniors in Champaign-Urbana who will graduate during the current school year. Students must show financial need for this scholarship, based upon the same certification used by public schools for free or reduced-price cafeteria meals, which also is the system used in determining eligibility for state and federal financial aid programs.