Wood, Ritchie and Wirt students receive scholarship

PARKERSBURG — Students from Wood, Ritchie and Wirt counties are among the 20 Bucklew Scholarship recipients competing for the Foundation Scholarship.

Breellen Fleming from Wirt County High School is already an entrepreneur with her own online business, designing business cards and logos, and also commissioned traditional artwork. She sees art as economic development and believes that it could help retain students who leave West Virginia after college graduation.

"I want to be one of the people who create space for the kids who want to stay here," Fleming said. "I want to help local art communities thrive around the state. I want West Virginia to have those opportunities. There's so much good art around the state; we really need to bring that to light."

Molly Powney from Parkersburg High School will be a biochemistry major and plans to go to medical school to become an obstetrician/gynecologist and practice in an area that has a low population of female doctors.

"I'm really interested in gender equality," Powney said. "I'm horrified that all the OBs are male. I want to be someone (patients) can talk to."

The university and the scholarships are family traditions for scholars like Sarah Cokeley from Ritchie County High School. Cokeley's Mountaineer legacy begins with her grandfather, who was on the wrestling team, and continues with her father, who was the Mountaineer in the early 1980s.

Two of her sisters were Bucklew Scholars and one of those, a Foundation Scholar.

"WVU really lives up to its name," Cokeley said. "I can't wait to be part of that. It's a great atmosphere and educational opportunities you just can't find anywhere else."

Cokeley plans to major in industrial engineering, "putting the pieces together" for whatever problem for which she's dealing.

The Bucklew Scholarship is given to 20 high-achieving West Virginia students accepted to the university and qualifies them to be considered for a Foundation Scholarship, the highest academic scholarship the university awards.

The variety of their experiences brings them to WVU with a broad scope of talents and achievements, WVU said.

Among the 20 high school seniors, two already are published authors and one has her own business. They are musicians, bakers, dancers, runners, actors, readers, hikers, poets, knitters and volunteers

Other Bucklew Scholars are Nicholas Miller, Noor Dahshan, Jessica Miller, Quinn Hopen, Larissa Tyree, Adam Craig, Zach Gilpin, Jessica Hogbin, Alyssa Rittinger, David Gainer, Miriam Demasi, Meagan Dougherty, Georgia Beatty, Abby Sine, Joseph Sullivan, Will McNeil and Grace Bannister.

The Neil S. Bucklew Scholarship is named after WVU's 20th president and is valued at $32,000, providing its recipients with more than $8,000 per year over four years to be used toward educational costs. All Bucklew Scholars have qualified for the Honors College at WVU, and the scholarship can be used in addition to the state's PROMISE Scholarship.

The Foundation Scholarships, which will be announced May 16, are awarded to five Bucklew Scholars.

The scholarships are part of the university's comprehensive awards program and are supported, in part, by the WVU Foundation, the private nonprofit corporation that generates, receives and administers private gifts for the benefit of WVU.

Source: Wood, Ritchie and Wirt students receive scholarship