HELENA — At Capital High School, one lucky student received a $1,000 scholarship towards their further education.
“And it feels great to be able to give back to students who are, you know, starting their careers. I feel like I got a great foundation here and I feel really fortunate that I can share some of it with students that are graduating now,” says graduate of the class of 1981, K.C. Hill.
The Capital High School Alumni Class of 1981 Memorial Scholarship began in order to honor those classmates who have passed, including Father Stu Long. The award is meant to go toward furthering the education of graduating CHS and PAL-CHS students.
The idea for the scholarship began when the class of 1981 gathered for their 40th reunion. Since then, they’ve raised $100,000, partly through a special showing of the movie "Father Stu" they were able to host.
The amount of money they’ve put together will not only allow them to continue this scholarship for the foreseeable future but also to raise the amount of money given away.
This year, senior Logan Johnson was the scholarship recipient. Johnson recently transferred to Capital High School for his senior year and, interestingly enough, says that his father says that Father Stu in fact baptized him. The scholarship isn’t based upon GPA, but rather the resilience of a student through difficult times.
“They don't look at your academics. They look at how you’ve overcome challenges and to see how well you can overcome that challenge because that's just what life is: one challenge after another,” says Johnson.
Johnson was recently diagnosed with Aspergers.
“And now to learn that I have this quote-unquote disability, it’s changed my life a lot. And sometimes it's for the worst, sometimes it's for the best. But either way, I’m alright with having it,” says Johnson.
Class of ‘81 alumni Lisa Waterman says Johnson was picked due to his volunteering, involvement, and perseverance.
“I think those are the things we were looking at, his leadership and dependability as well as his courage,” says Waterman.
Johnson says he is honored to have been picked for the scholarship and that it will go towards his fish, ocean, and astronomy studies in Alaska.
