Teaching scholarships available, local band honors & more from the … – Kokomo Tribune

Teaching scholarships available

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education is accepting applications for the Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship.

The scholarship fund provides up to $40,000 of financial aid for aspiring teachers.

High school and college students who plan to teach in Indiana for at least five years can receive up to $10,000 per year of college (up to $40,000 total) from the scholarship. Students must apply by Jan. 31 at ScholarTrack.IN.gov.

To expand upon the number of recipients of this scholarship and encourage the educator workforce to be reflective of student demographics, lawmakers established the Next Generation Hoosier Minority Educators Scholarship during the 2023 legislative session.

The award provides Black and Hispanic or Latino recipients with up to $10,000 per year of college and shares the same requirements as the Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship. The application is built within the Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship application.

To qualify for either scholarship, students must meet one of the following academic requirements:

• Rank in the top 20% of their high school graduating class or

• Have a top 20th percentile score on the ACT (25) or SAT (1190) or

• Have a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale

Students who apply for both the Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship and the Next Generation Hoosier Minority Educators Scholarship can only be selected for one of the awards.

Students picked for All State

Band students at Taylor and Maconaquah high schools were selected for the Indiana Music Education Association’s All State Concert Band.

Taylor will be represented by William Howard, tenor sax, and Layon Shimer, French horn.

Grayson Byrn, percussion, of Maconaquah High School was also selected.

All State Concert Band members are nominated and have achieved high marks during solo and ensemble events.

Selected students will perform at the Embassy Theater in Fort Wayne in January as part of the IMEA Professional Development Conference.

Students will work with a guest clinician.

Students picked for All District

High school band students from Eastern and Western high schools were selected to the Indiana Jazz Educators Association All-District jazz band.

Selected students performed Nov. 12 at Lafayette Jefferson High School.

They included Western students Bryton Carter, alto saxophone; Jackson Edwards, bass trombone; Fiona Lam, piano; and Levi Rhum, drum.

Porter Stone, piano, represented Eastern High School.

These students perform and work with a guest conductor.

Eastern to use TRECS program

GREENTOWN — The Eastern School Board gave the school district the OK to use a state program to recover outstanding debts Tuesday.

With the board’s approval, Eastern Howard School Corporation will utilize the Tax Refund Exchange & Compliance System (TRECS) to recover outstanding debts from people who owe the district money.

These debts are usually due to textbook rental fees, school lunch debt and iPad damage fees, according to Travis Hueston, Eastern’s business manager.

The TRECS program allows entities to collect on outstanding debts through one’s state income tax return. The outstanding debt is essentially garnished off the top of the tax return.

Hueston said outstanding debt is about $56,000 at Eastern.

Med students get scholarships

Local medical students and those studying nursing were awarded scholarships through the Dwaine and Louise Plummer Scholarship Fund.

Three students — Evan Catron, Mitchell Grecu and Anna Grobengieser — had their medical scholarships renewed.

First-time recipient Kaesha Smith received a nursing scholarship.

The Plummer Scholarship Fund was established to assist Howard County graduates who go on to study in the medical field.

This year, $12,000 was awarded out of the fund.

Tri-Kappa scholarships available

Tri Kappa sorority is accepting applications for both local and state scholarships available to Tipton County students who are currently attending college as sophomores, juniors, seniors or graduate students.

In addition to academic scholarships, other scholarships are available to fine arts majors and music education majors.

There is a scholarship available to non-traditional students with an interruption in education of at least five years prior to enrollment.

For more information, contact Allison Ripberger, aripberger@tcsc.k12.in.us or by calling 765-438-2434.

This is the only time applications will be accepted during the 2023-24 school year. Applications must be completed and emailed/postmarked by Dec. 29.

NASA writing contest open

NASA is accepting entries in its Power to Explore Student Challenge writing contest.

The writing challenge invites students in kindergarten through 12th grade to learn about radioisotope power systems, a type of nuclear battery integral to many of NASA’s far-reaching space missions, and then write an essay about a new powered mission for the agency.

Entries should detail where students would go, what they would explore and how they would use the power of radioisotope power systems to achieve mission success in a dusty, dark or far away space destination with limited or obstructed access to light. Submissions are due Jan. 26.

A grand prize winner will be selected from each grade category, K-fourth, fifth-eighth and ninth-12th. Winners will receive a trip for two to NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland to learn about the people and technologies that enable NASA missions.

Every student who submits an entry will receive a digital certificate and an invitation to a virtual event with NASA experts.

Visit rps.nasa.gov/STEM/power-to-explore/ for information and to enter the contest.

Students picked for honor band

Eighth and ninth grade band members from Tipton Community School Corporation performed with the 44th Indiana Bandmasters All-Region Honor Band on Nov. 12 at Marion High School.

Students included Selkie Parsons, Sarah Jane Hill, Connor Clouser, Jude Rockwell, Nora Schmitt and Keiara Yeung.

Students from Western and Northwestern high schools also performed with the honor band.

Encompass gets gym floor naming rights

The Tipton School Board approved Tuesday a sponsorship with Encompass Credit Union for the Tipton High School gym floor.

The new gym floor will be known as Encompass Court. The entire gymnasium is being updated, part of a campus-wide school improvement project.