The Herb Kohl Educational Foundation will sponsor an awards luncheon Sunday, April 17, to honor the achievements of northeast and northcentral Wisconsin students, teachers, and principals who are receiving foundation awards. The event will be held at West De Pere High School.
Collin Zoellner of Gleason, a student at Merrill High School, is among the honorees. Zoellner has been named an Initiative Scholar by the Herb Kohl Foundation.
According to Kim Marggraf, spokesperson for the foundation, Herb Kohl will be making formal award presentations to the recipients at the luncheon. “Education is the key to the future of Wisconsin and our nation. I am very proud of the accomplishments of these students, teachers, and principals, and look forward to the great contributions they will make in the future,” Kohl said.
Northeast and northcentral Wisconsin’s 19 Excellence Scholarship recipients and 19 Initiative Scholarship recipients will each receive $5,000 grants to the postsecondary institution that the student will attend. The scholarship amount was increased from $3,000 to $5,000 in a surprise announcement earlier this month at the first awards luncheon in Chippewa Falls. The 18 teachers and five principals from northeast and northcentral Wisconsin will each receive a $3,000 Fellowship or Leadership grant and an additional $3,000 will be awarded to the teachers’ and principals’ schools for use in innovative educational projects.
“Representatives of co-sponsoring organizations: the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Wisconsin Council of Religious and Independent Schools, Cooperative Educational Service Agencies 7, 8, and 9, Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation, Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, and the families and friends of southeast Wisconsin award recipients will be part of the recognition program,” Marggraf said.
The Herb Kohl Initiative Scholarship was established to recognize students who have demonstrated a high level of motivation to achieve, have shown strong promise for achieving success in college and beyond, have overcome significant personal obstacles or adversity, and have not yet received other academic-based scholarships.
The Kohl Educational Foundation Scholarship and Fellowship program was established by Herb Kohl in 1990. To date the foundation has provided $10.2 million to Wisconsin educators, students, and schools. The Kohl Foundation annually awards approximately 200 scholarships, 100 teacher fellowships, and 16 principal awards throughout the state. The foundation announced the 2016 recipients of those awards last month. The statewide press release can be found on the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation website.