More Onalaska senior boys applying helps school land $1.2 million for scholarships

It was a banner year for seniors receiving scholarships at Onalaska High School.

Those students received a total of $1.2 million in scholarship money.

Of the 119 students that applied, 101 got at least one scholarship. Four of those students received five or more scholarships.Twenty-four received scholarships based solely on academics.

A major change was the male population going after the awards said scholarship coordinator Bridgett Hubbard.

“Our number of males were decreasing overall in terms of applying for scholarships,” she said. “That number did increase, offering some opportunities for students to get assistance for new student services during a few different resource periods, explaining the process to students. It’s becoming less intimidating.”

Hubbard says there was a noticeable push from University of Wisconsin System to keep the top students in state.

“We often times don’t get a lot of in state monies from our largest post-secondary institution,” Hubbard said, “but this year we actually had a record number of scholarships in our public universities to hand our students this year for the first time that I really noticed some substantial monies.”

Hubbard says more people are applying for scholarships because the process is much simpler and less intimidating.