Four Oconee County students and their parents recently participated in a signing ceremony to become an official Georgia REACH Scholar. Each of these students will each receive a $10,000 post-secondary scholarship as part of a public/private partnership between the State of Georgia and the Oconee community.

“Oconee County Schools is proud to honor our fourth annual class of REACH Scholars and their tremendous achievement of receiving college scholarships while in middle school,” said Superintendent Jason L. Branch. “All four students are most deserving of this accomplishment, and are outstanding examples of the wonderful young people that make up our world class school system.”

The district’s four 2022 REACH Scholars are:

Kogi Solis – Malcom Bridge Middle School

Tracy Toney – Malcom Bridge Middle School

Ma’Kayla Williams – Oconee County Middle School

Robert Evans – Oconee County Middle School

The REACH Georgia program is a needs-based scholarship designed to promote academic success and expand access to higher education. As a part of the program, students signed contracts to maintain a certain grade point average and meet with a mentor and academic coach regularly until they graduate from high school. Parents/guardians signed contracts to support their respective students through this process. When these scholars graduate from high school, they will receive a $10,000 scholarship – $2,500 each year for up to four years – to be used at a HOPE-eligible Georgia two or four-year college. Many colleges are matching this scholarship and some are double matching the scholarship, providing scholars additional resources for their college education.

The REACH Scholarship program is a public/private partnership with a portion of the funding provided at the state level, while the remainder must be raised by the local community. Oconee County Schools is seeking additional business/industry partners to support this program. If interested, please contact REACH Coordinator, Beth Parks, at [email protected] or at 706.769.5130, ext. 1336.

The group of sponsors for this year’s scholars are:

Athens Ford

BankSouth

Oconee State Bank

Peach State Federal Credit Union

Walton EMC

For more information, REACH Georgia, please visit www.oconeeschools.org/REACH.