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Senator rewards high school students' achievement

By Adam Wise
Daily Tribune Staff June 4, 2007

Two local high school seniors will be moving to college this fall with a prestigious state scholarship in their repertoire.

Benjamin Peters, of Assumption High School, and Jennifer Englert, of Nekoosa High School, were recipients of the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation 2007 Excellence Scholarship.

The Foundation, named after Wisconsin's long-time Senator, awards 100 scholarships in the amount of $1,000 to graduating seniors who demonstrate academic potential, leadership and other positive character qualities.

Peters, 18, who will be attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. to study aerospace engineering, said winning the award surprised him.

"I was just sort of amazed because of how many scholarships he (Herb Kohl) gives out is astounding and the money he puts into it is quite generous," Peters said.

While Peters moves to the east coast this fall, Englert, 18, will be attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue a business degree.

"I was pretty excited to get (the scholarship)," she said. "I felt pretty honored that I was chosen for it."

Heather Currier, a counselor at Nekoosa High School who advised Englert for the past four years, said she was qualified for the scholarship for being so well-rounded.

"I would say she's one of our most evolved students at Nekoosa in the realm of academics," Currier said. "She's high achieving, she's a three-sport athlete, she's very involved in (choir and) she's in National Honors Society."

Peters, who will be working another summer of Boy Scout camp in Rhinelander, said he first became interested in science at a young age.

"When I was a kid, I built a lot of model rockets and I really liked it," he said, "so I decided I would do the full-scale rockets (at MIT)."

You can reach reporter Adam Wise at 422-6726 or awwise@wisconsinrapidstribune.com.