Hunter Duval Awarded the Horatio Alger State Scholarship
Hunter Duval Awarded the Horatio Alger State Scholarship
Woodsville High School junior and VTSU Lyndon Upward Bound student Hunter Duval was recently notified that he has been awarded the Horatio Alger State Scholar Award. This $10,000 scholarship honors the achievements of remarkable individuals and encourages youth to pursue their dreams through higher education. These annual scholarships recognize outstanding students, who, in the face of great personal adversity, remain committed to pursuing higher education.
This is the first year the Scholarship was awarded to high school juniors after historically only being awarded to seniors. The Horatio Alger Association decided to award students one year earlier to support early intervention by providing resources throughout the college selection and application process. Horatio Alger Scholars have access to many services throughout their senior year and during their college tenure, such as financial aid counseling, college selection advising, 24/7 mental health support and more.
Hunter is a junior at Woodsville High School, where he maintains impressive grades while taking the hardest classes available to him. He is on Woodsville’s honor roll and a member of the National Honor Society. He does this while being an avid mountain biker, a new driver, and fully involved in Upward Bound.
Through Upward Bound, he has taken advantage of just about every activity that has been offered to him, including numerous college tours, the Green Mountain Scholars Bowl (2023, 2024), and was selected to represent our program at the New England Student Leadership Conference at the Hulbert Center in Fairlee. This event brings together almost 80 students from throughout New England for a three-day immersive and intensive program. It is also one of the most culturally diverse conferences available to TRIO students – combining rural students from Vermont and Maine with urban scholars from Fall River, Boston, and Rhode Island. This was an exceptional experience for Hunter and he thrived in this opportunity. He was able to share his views on national issues, address the issue of social justice, and work with a wide range of students from schools that had more than 4000 students – very different than rural Woodsville New Hampshire. He was also selected to represent our program at the 2024 Student Leadership Conference at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, which brought together students from educational opportunity programs across New England for a full day of leadership workshops, speakers, and a tour of the Museum.
He was also a key student leader helping to facilitate the Warm the Children program that provided $20,000 of new winter clothing to children in need from Orleans County and Island Pond. Hunter acted as a volunteer shopper, in this sometimes challenging and emotional event, and was able to help young children (and parents) decide what clothes would be the most appropriate for winter. And, as always, he handled himself with maturity and treated all of the recipients with respect.
Upward Bound at Vermont State University Lyndon is a college preparatory program funded through the United States Department of Education committed to providing modest income, first generation college bound students the academic background, college preparatory experiences, and support needed to succeed in college immediately after high school. The program works with 75 students in 9 Northeast Kingdom high schools, who are dedicated to achieving their post-secondary dreams. Upward Bound students receive support services throughout the school year and spend six weeks of their summer on the campus of VTSU – Lyndon. For more information, please contact Rick Williams in the Upward Bound Office at 626-5000.
