Apollo Student Surprised with $40K Scholarship

ST. CLOUD -- Staff, students, parents and a couple mascots came out to surprise an Apollo High School student with a scholarship Friday morning.

Senior, William Clark was awarded a $40,000 college scholarship from the University of Minnesota. Clark just found out on Thursday, that he was accepted to the U of M Twin Cities campus.

He says he's been excited since he found out he was accepted and winning the scholarship is an extra bonus he never expected.

"I just applied with the common application online. It's really exciting, this is the school I've wanted to go to for a long time. When I got my acceptance letter there weren't any scholarships in it, so I was kind of discouraged that I wasn't going to get any."

Clark was accepted into the university's nursing program. He says he's already planning on getting his graduate degree.

"I want to go into something medical. I'm thinking nursing and then going back to get my masters to become a nurse practitioner."

Clark says possibly becoming a doctor isn't out of the question either.

Maria Jaramillo is one of the Assistant Directors of Admission at the University of Minnesota. She along with the U's mascot, Goldie, came out to present the scholarship award to Clark. Jaramillo says they pick just a few scholarship recipients a year to surprise.

"We don't come out to a lot of schools. We get to hand selecte a couple students where we'll come with Goldie and a certificate and make a big splash. We really get to recognize a student's achievements."

Jaramillo says Clark's scholarship was solely based on his application for admission.