Community Corner

Fully Paid: Florissant Students Earn Gates Millennium Scholarships

For almost a decade, eight McCluer High School graduates have received a full ride thanks to the Gates Millennium scholarship program.

As more and more students search for ways to finance their college education, a number of students in Florissant have been fortunate to have their entire college education paid in full.

McCluer High School and Hazelwood Central Senior High School each had Gates Millenium Scholars selected from their schools. For McCluer, this makes its eighth selection in the past decade and gives it the title of having the most students in the state awarded the honor.

“We are proud to be the home of such a high number of recipients of this scholarship,” McCluer Principal Gary Spiller said. “It is a tradition that our students are eager to continue. (It) has created a culture of academic success in our school that benefits everyone.”

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The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports the Gates Millenium Scholarship Program. It provides annual scholarships to students across the country. The scholarship offers full educational funding—tuition, books, fees and living expenses—from undergraduate through doctoral programs, if the student chooses. The program selects 1,000 students each year.

This year, the Gates Millenium Scholars program selected two Florissant area students, McCluer senior Kristen McPike and Hazelwood Central senior Kyle Jordan-DeDeaux.

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“This means the world to me,” McPike said. “I probably wouldn’t have been able to go to my dream school.”

She said she begun work on the eight essays needed for the scholarship last summer, and with the help of her teachers, was able to complete and submit the packet.

McPike’s parents are elated, too.

“It’s a weight off of our shoulders,” Sandra Watson, McPike’s mom, said. “She’s so amazing. I’m so happy for her.”

McPike plans to pursue her bachelor’s degree at her dream school – Loyola University in Chicago, where she will study chemical engineering or biochemistry, and she plans to go all of the way to her doctorate.

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For Jordan-DeDeaux, one of Central’s physics teachers, Danielle Camarota, provided a recommendation she said she was happy to give. A recommender is an essential part of the application, according to the GMS website.

“I was Kyle’s physics teacher and advisor his freshman year, and we have continued to stay in contact throughout his high school experience,” Camarota said. “He has shown himself to be a highly capable student. He is self-motivating and hard-working as demonstrated by his active participation and academic success. He is a kind and polite young man who works well with his peers. I thoroughly believe he is deserving of any scholarships that are awarded to him.”

For McCluer, it’s a special pride point to have so many scholars chosen from its school.

“In order to ultimately receive this scholarship, a student must plan over his or her entire school career to receive it,” said Spiller. “We work with students as early as their freshman year to prepare to apply for the Gates Millennium Scholarship, making sure they maintain excellent grades and pursue leadership opportunities throughout their high school career.  It’s a practice that elevates not only the students who receive this scholarship their senior year, but encourages all our students to set and reach ambitious goals.”

McCluer alumnus and current University of Missouri student Mark Vassell said he heard about the program during his freshman year, and knew from that moment that he would pursue it.

“It takes away all my problems,” Vassell said. “I just go to school and learn.”

Without the scholarship, he said that he wouldn’t be able to attend college.

Vassell will enter his sophomore year at the University of Missouri in Columbia next fall. He’s pursuing his bachelor’s degree in computer science, he said, and he plans to pursue his doctoral degree.

Other McCluer alumni who have received the scholarship seem to be thriving, too.

Alumnus Errynne Page graduated this month from Howard University in Washington D.C. with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. Aroona Toor has finished up her junior year at Saint Louis University in Madrid, Spain. She’s pursuing degrees in public health and Spanish.

According to GMS website, since the program’s inception, more than 16,000 scholars have been selected and the program has awarded more than $763 million.


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