Five Twiggs County Middle School students awarded college scholarships

JEFFERSONVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Five students were awarded for being among the best and brightest, at Twiggs County Middle school.

Shaniqua Coley, Jada Daniel, Erika Durham, Jimmy Peavy and Ava Walden were each given $10,000 “REACH” SCHOLARSHIPS.

The money is to be used as tuition FOR THE COLLEGE OR university OF THEIR CHOICE.

All five winners are eighth graders with high grade point averages and excellent attendance records.

The idea of the program is to continue to encourage students who are showing promise in middle school and to help guide them through high school and into college, says REACH Coordinator for Twiggs County schools, Jackie Curtis.

“We want them to stay on track, so they will be able to go to college and pursue their dreams and achieve them,”
says Curtis.

Twiggs County School Superintendent, Elgin Davis commended the Twiggs County School board for their efforts in obtaining the scholarships.

“These are some of the things that we’ve been working toward for the last four years,” says Twiggs County School Board Chair, Terralon Chaney. “To bring in new program to provide new opportunities for our children to provide scholarships.”

Governor Nathan Deal started the REACH scholarship in Feb 2012. It is Georgia’s first public-private needs based scholarship.

“Friday after I got a call from the Governor of our state asking if I would basically stand in for him to present a commendation to Twiggs County Public School System on his behalf for participating in the REACH program,” says Rep. Bubber Epps 144th District.

Twiggs County school officials say the selection process for the REACH scholarships was so competitive that they had to increase the number of recipients from three to five.