Franklin students are 4th group offered Georgetown College’s full-tuition scholarships

The four-year, $160,000 scholarships Georgetown College this month offered to all Scott County students admitted during the next 10 years also will be offered to students in Franklin, Owen and Casey counties.

Franklin County students were given the news Thursday morning at a ceremony on Georgetown’s campus, college spokesman Daniel Flener said. He said Franklin is the final county where the offer will be extended to students.

Beginning in fall 2020, any newly admitted, full-time, residential student who either graduated from a high school in Franklin, Owen and Casey County after attending for their senior year, or who has been a resident in those counties for at least one year, will receive the Legacy and Legends Scholarship covering the full cost of tuition for four years, Flener said. The same offer was announced earlier in December for Scott County students.

Georgetown College’s connection to Franklin County stems from its early history of welcoming women to the college, officials said in a news release Thursday. In 1846, the college welcomed four women to join a seminary connected to Georgetown. One of those women, Mary F. Craig, came to the seminary from Franklin County, and she was considered a trailblazer for future female students.

“Legacy and Legends honors the connection Franklin County has with Georgetown College’s history of welcoming trailblazing women,” college President Will Jones said in a news release. “This scholarship will allow the next generation of trailblazers, innovators, and leaders to receive the championship-level education of the heart and mind that Georgetown College provides. I look forward to welcoming many new students from Franklin County to campus thanks to this exciting opportunity.”

Dr. Houston Barber, superintendent of Frankfort Independent Schools and Superintendent of Franklin County Schools Mark Kopp said they were excited for their students after the announcement was made Thursday.

The reaction was similar when students in other counties that had a historical connection to Georgetown received the offer.

For a small rural community such as Owen County, “to say the offer is game-changing is an understatement,” Owen County High School Principal Duane Kline said earlier.

“Our community does not have a large pool of college-going adults,” Kline said.

He said a third of high school graduates in Owen County go to a four-year college and another third to a two-year or technical college. He hopes the “offer to go to an excellent college” results in an increase of Owen County graduates enrolling.

“It’s going to be game-changing ... for our community in the long-term and that’s maybe the most exciting part,” Kline said.

“Owen County has a special connection to Georgetown’s legacy, because it is a place of the heart for some of the legends of our college,” Jones said in an earlier news release.

Other scholarships and grants for which a student is eligible can be stacked on top of the scholarship and applied to room and board or other fees.

Room and board in the fall of 2020 will cost $10,670, and there is a comprehensive fee of $990 that applies to all students. The other expenses students might include books and supplies, Jonathan Sands Wise, vice-president of enrollment management at Georgetown College, has said.

Students will have to meet entrance requirements first and only first-time freshman will be eligible next year. Roughly, said Wise, Georgetown College looks for at least a 2.5 GPA and at least an ACT score of 19 or 20. The average GPA for the fall of 2019 was about a 3.5 and the average ACT score was 24, Wise has said.

Alli Gill, an 18-year-old Owen County High School senior, had said that she had already been accepted to Georgetown College and the scholarship offer surprised her.

“I guess this is kind of the cherry on top,” said Gill. “It helps my family out.”

Current Georgetown College students from Scott, Franklin, Owen and Casey counties are not eligible for the scholarship. Georgetown is a private Christian liberal arts college in Scott County with about 960 undergraduate students and nearly 650 graduate students, Flener said.

Donations from alumni and others will be used to pay for the scholarship program, college officials said.

The new scholarship will begin in 2020 and will be up for renewal in 2030.

Flener has said the full tuition scholarships are being offered in conjunction with the school’s upcoming bicentennial in 2029.

“This is ...a big celebration,” he said, “of the legacy of that 200 years.”

This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 7:07 AM.