NOTRE DAME H.S. CLASS EARNS TOTAL SCHOLARSHIPS OF $300,000

The Notre Dame High School graduating class of 1991 earned a total of $300,000 in college scholarships.

Notre Dame graduated 54 seniors, said principal Sister Mary Ann Fischer.

While not every student earned a scholarship, Fischer said the sum total of honors received speaks well of the class.

She added that over 90 percent of that graduating class plans to further their education at college or a career school.

"They're paying tuition to get a high school education," Fischer said. "But many are getting their college education free."

Students earned both academic and athletic scholarships.

"I think the intellectual ability of this class was rather high and they were very competitive with each other," Fischer said. "I think as a group this class had very high goals set for themselves and worked to reach those goals."

Many scholarships are based on ACT or SAT college entrance exam scores.

"This grad class had very high ACT and SAT scores," Fischer said. "To rate high on those tests, you have to have a good, solid educational background. These students have been working all four years at Notre Dame and had good elementary backgrounds in order to score well on these tests."

The hard work paid off, Fischer said.

Fischer said another factor adding to the scholarship total is the fact that students applied for many scholarships.

"That's a credit to the students and the counseling staff at Notre Dame," she said. "The counselors kept prodding them to complete the applications. Some of those applications quite detailed and do take some time to complete."

The awards received varied, Fischer said. Some were for specific colleges or universities. Others were applicable to any university.

Most of the scholarships will be used at schools in Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky.

"I think the number of scholarships is larger this year than in the past two years," she said. "However, every year our graduates receive many scholarships. I think it's another tribute to the good teaching and the application of students to their studies here.

"It pays off."