BUCKHANNON, W.Va. — The winner of the West Virginia Scholar Program is Brayton Boggs, a rising senior at Winfield High School.
The award is for a four-year scholarship to West Virginia Wesleyan College valued at more than $160,000. It includes tuition, fees, and room and board.
Boggs was announced Wednesday during a luncheon on the Buckhannon campus. He told MetroNews he could not believe it when his name was called.
“My first reaction was I looked over at my parents and they couldn’t believe it. It’s such a surreal moment,” Boggs said.
Boggs said his parents told him about the scholarship program so he decided to apply. He said it’s a relief for everyone heading into his senior year.
“Any family that has to send a child to college, finances is always the big things that come up. Now we can move on to the hard core components of what I am going to study,” he said.
Boggs noted that he wants to get into politics or a law career following college.
Bo Persinger of Midland Trail High School was the runner-up.
Finalists spoke on Wednesday’s MetroNews “Talkline” before the winner was selected.
Wyatt Burns of Lewis County High School said he has big dreams to possibly run for political office.
“I have a passion for state government and would be interested in serving as a county commissioner,” Burns said. He’s going to college to study biology with hopes of becoming attending medical school to become a cardiologist.
Meredith Cottrell of Wirt County High School said she has connections to Wesleyan. The college sparked her interest because her sister graduated from there.
“It’s very homely. It feels safe. The professors are close to my sister so there was also that connection there,” Cottrell said.
West Virginia Wesleyan Interim President James Moore said the students who applied for the scholarship come from all different backgrounds.
“We have students here who want to go to law school and become doctors. They want to change the world,” Moore said.
Moore said he understands college is expensive, so their goal is to make it more affordable for students and their families.
“My message to students out there is we can make this work for you,” he said.
It’s important to provide scholarship opportunities like this because West Virginia needs young people to stay and make the state a better place to live and work, Moore said.
“We’ve got health care challenges in this state. We’ve got a teacher shortage we have to solve. We’ve got access to higher education issues all around the region and Wesleyan needs to be apart of those solutions. We can lead the way in so many ways,” he said.
John Waltz, vice president for enrollment management at Wesleyan, said most students who applied expressed interest in moving West Virginia forward.
“It was about starting businesses, it was about helping with health care, it was about drawing people to the state. It was just all the things you’d want to hear from young people,” he said.
One of those students who could be part of that future is Mason Nichols of Tyler Consolidated High School. He said he wants to go into health care.
“I’m looking in the medical field. Both my parents are doctors and so they’ve kind of persuaded me to that side. I’ve always been pretty good at math and science,” Nichols said.
One of the essay questions asks students to reflect on is what they’d like to contribute to the state of West Virginia. Boggs said he submitted his essay during what’s typically considered a big night for high school juniors.
“Whenever I applied and wrote my essay for this, it was the night of the prom. I decided ‘I’m going to apply for this instead of going to the prom.’ That might not be the thing most people would do, but I took time and wrote that essay,” he said.
Moore said their students have online options, and it’s important to keep those programs past COVID, but that they also want to build up their on-campus infrastructure.
“The residential campus experience, the face-to-face experience is what we do best,” he said. “We know our students value that.”
The sponsors for the West Virginia Scholar Program include title sponsor Greer Industries along with West Virginia International Yeager Airport, the West Virginia Hospital Association, ZMM Architects & Engineers, Friends of Coal and the West Virginia Farm Bureau.
John Raese, president and CEO of Greer Industries, said it’s an important time to help the next generation succeed.
“I think the youth of our country needs to take over, needs to make a bigger stand. It’s their future. It’s what we’ve given them. When you look at what’s going on in the world and certainly the economic situation of our country today, we’re rooting for these guys. This is the future,” Raese said.
Wednesday’s MetroNews “Talkline” aired from the West Virginia Wesleyan campus.