Topeka, KS – The Kansas Office of the State Bank Commissioner (OSBC) has awarded five scholarships totaling $10,000 to five recent Kansas high school graduates. The students wrote essays demonstrating their knowledge of money management and the importance it has on their future in this year’s Kansas Financial Scholars Essay Contest.
Hallie Snyder, from Prairie View High School, earned the first-place designation in the annual contest. Hallie plans to attend Baker University to pursue a degree in Business/Pre-Law and will receive a $3,000 scholarship towards her education.
The second-place scholarship of $2,500 was awarded to Jayden Brethour from Integritas Academy. Gwen VanLeeuwen from Seaman High School earned third, and a $2,000 scholarship. Fourth, with a $1,500 scholarship was awarded to Ben Rogers from Cornerstone Homeschool Academy, and the fifth scholarship of $1,000 goes to Mallory Young from Jefferson West High School.
When asked about this year’s scholarship contest, Bank Commissioner David Herndon said “The ladies and gentlemen of the OSBC are once again, proud to recognize a group of outstanding high school graduates and delighted to award them each a scholarship to assist their collegiate experience. Indeed, these scholarship winners represent their families, their schools, their teachers and most importantly themselves in this accomplishment. They are clearly tomorrow’s leaders.”
To be eligible for this scholarship, students must have completed a financial literacy program that aligns with the Kansas financial literacy K-12 standards, and they must be attending a Kansas technical school, college, or university in the Fall of 2022. To enter, the students were asked to use a college comparison tool and submit a two-part essay. The first part of the essay discussed how they learned about money management and its effect on their approach to managing financial decisions for their continued education. For the second part, they described how they used the knowledge gained through their financial literacy program, the comparison tool, and personal experience.
Hallie Snyder’s winning essay and additional information about the winners are available on the website of the Office of the State Bank Commissioner.
Educating Kansas consumers is an important part of the mission of the OSBC. There are many different financial literacy programs and curriculum used in high schools and this contest challenges students to use that knowledge to research and analyze decisions they will make for their futures. The scholarships are funded by fines imposed upon, or settlements reached with, companies within the jurisdictions of the sponsoring state office; no taxpayer monies are used.
