While looking for ways to pay for college, Hulbert High School senior Sydney Dunning has found the Real Thing — a scholarship from Coca-Cola that could pay up to $20,000.

Dunning is one of 200 students from across the United States competing for one of 50 $20,000 scholarships through the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation.

As a regional finalist, she already has earned a $4,000 scholarship, plus a trip to Atlanta for the scholarship competition on April 6.

“The $4,000 will help a little,” said Dunning, who already has a $20,000 scholarship from the University of Arkansas. “Because my parents are above the income bracket to qualify me for financial aid, I am applying for everything in scholarships.”

Dunning has the motivation and “sense of purpose” to earn all sorts of scholarships,” said Tracey Scott, her Advanced Placement English teacher.

“In all my eight years of teaching Advanced Placement, Sydney has been the best student-athlete I know,” she said. “She always handles things with grace and a sense of maturity. When problems arise, she can step back and analyze them.”

Scott said she admires the way Dunning already has her goals in place.

“With her, it’s not a question of ‘am I going to college,’ it is ‘where am I going to college and how am I going to get a scholarship,’” she said.

Dunning said she didn’t have an impressive ACT score, 27 out of a perfect score of 36, but still well above the national average of 20.9.

As a result, she said she is relying on scholarships based on grades and leadership.

She has been president of her class for the past four years and currently is president of the student council and National Honor Society. She also is active in basketball.

Dunning said she’s excited about the opportunity to go to Atlanta. While there, scholarship candidates will undergo interviews with leaders in business, education, government and the arts.

“I get to spend four days in Atlanta,” she said. “We’ll have a huge banquet, tour the city, go to seminars and do some community service projects.”

Dunning hopes to go to the University of Arkansas to major in either law or architecture.

“Maybe I’ll take an intro-class in each subject,” she said, adding that she hopes to become a judge or get into politics.”

She is taking concurrent classes at Northeastern State University.

“So I’ll already have 27 college credits when I go in, I’ll almost be a sophomore,” she said.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Education, Scholarship. Tags: College, Education, Financial Aid, Scholarship, Student. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.