Senior Chris Neil wins MetroNews Scholarship

By Ryan Shatto

   Senior Chris Neil won the MetroNews Scholarship which is a full ride to West Virginia Wesleyan College.

   “Winning this means the world to me,” he said.

   Next fall Wesleyan will be covering Neil’s tuition and room and board. This scholarship at a total estimate worth is $160,000.

    “Being able to take such a large amount of stress off my parents’ plate is a blessing,” he added.

   Prior to the announcement of a winner, Neil said he highly doubted he would win this scholarship, but thought it would be a good practice to write college essays. Neil said Wesleyan has a tremendous biology program, which is the course he will be studying next fall.

   “When they said Neil I didn’t move. I thought it was a dream,” he said.

   At close to the end of last school year there were 100 West Virginia juniors that applied for this scholarship. There were five separate rounds to this scholarship, including the essay, video interviews, and online voting.  Three students from Ripley qualified for the voting round last year.

   “We are so proud of Christopher,” his mother Shelly Cox said.

   The MetroNews Scholarship is one of the three most valuable full-rides in the state.  Others that are comparable are the Yeager Scholarship from Marshall University, the Foundation Scholarship from West Virginia University. To be able to call yourself one of the three largest scholarship winners out of hundreds of students is a tremendous accomplishment.