The Berks’ Best scholarship program has been selecting outstanding high school seniors for 25 years. Each school in Berks County, Pennsylvania selects its top two seniors in each category. All of the categories are Business, Career & Tech Education, Communications, Community Service, Computer Science, Math, Performing Arts, Environment/Science, Social Studies/History, and Visual Arts. The Berks County Community Foundation selects one student from each category and awards them a $500 scholarship. In addition, a picture and brief description of them will be published in the Reading Eagle.
Hailey Quinn, one of the senior winners in communications and performing arts, was very excited to be nominated. She was not aware that Berks’ Best existed, so she was very surprised when the announcement was made. Hailey has finished her performing arts application and has started the application process for communications. Each application has a series of open-ended questions and a category-specific question. Students who were nominated in two categories have to submit two separate applications. She said the program is easy to use, and it is very convenient that she is allowed to copy some of her answers from her first application and use it on the second. Hailey is in the band at the high school, plays the flute, takes private lessons, and is involved with the flute choir. She has also taken the publications class for three years and has taken on leadership roles. For these reasons, she is glad that her hard work in these areas has paid off with her nominations. If Hailey is selected as the final winner, she will be able to use the $500 scholarship towards her college tuition.
One of the winners in business, Kirra Goetz, was pleasantly surprised to be announced as a nominee. She took a business class at the high school and will be attending Kutztown University for accounting, but she never expected to be nominated in this category. Kirra’s sister, Mia, wanted to start her own egg business and Kirra helped her with that. She also plans on selling cookies in Jim Thorpe and has a lot of interest in business and entrepreneurship. Getting selected as one of the best in a category gave Kirra a boost to her self-esteem and made her very happy.
