Submitted by: Lu Ann Hurd-Lof
 
Nearly 300 students have received recognition as Students of the Month since the Park Rapids Rotary Club started this program at Park Rapids Area High School in the mid-1980s.
 
The students are chosen by a faculty committee and recognized at school board meetings monthly during the school year. The students, all seniors, are chosen for their leadership and other contributions as well as academics and extracurricular talents.
Rotary also hosts the students for lunch with club members to share their participation in school activities and plans for the future. For the first time this year, Edward Jones partnered on the project and is presenting students with hooded sweatshirts with the Rotary logo front and back.
 
Dan Pike also announced Rotary’s new $2,500 scholarship to be awarded annually to a graduating senior the second term of their first year of vocational school.
 
According to principal Johnson, the high school has increased the emphasis on vocational training. He explained a new program led by a “career coach” to further make every student aware of various vocations through such opportunities, such as job-shadowing and apprenticing.
 
Park Rapids Area High School Principal Jeff Johnson (left), September through January Students of the Month, Rotarian Dan Pike of Edward Jones (right) and Club President Mark Larsen (far right) attended the Park Rapids Rotary Club meeting Feb. 14. Edward Jones is sponsoring sweatshirts with the Rotary logo for Students of the Month for the first time this year. Students the club hosted are (from left) Matthew Benson, Casimir Simonson, Peter Van Batavia, Jaiden McCollum and Kennedy Carlson. Dan also announced Rotary’s new $2,500 scholarship to be awarded annually to a graduating senior the second term of their first year of vocational school.