BUCKHANNON – West Virginia Wesleyan and WVMetroNews announced West Virginia high school juniors can apply for the 14th annual West Virginia Scholar Program starting this week.

Wesleyan President Dr. Joel Thierstein called into Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval to announce students may apply for the scholarship beginning today, Monday, Feb. 15. through April 30.

“The West Virginia Scholar Program and awards a scholarship to West Virginia Wesleyan for a full four-year scholarship with all the academic costs including tuition, room and board – it is this person’s pass to college,” Kercheval said. “I know probably not a lot of high school juniors are listening to the show today – they should be in school or doing your schoolwork – but moms, dads, aunts, uncles and grandparents, you have to tell a junior about this because this is a wonderful program, and somebody’s life is going to change because of it.”

Thierstein said there are also a few runner-up scholarships, so there will be more than one winner.

“It’s life-changing for the student and the family. Let me give you an example — our 2016 West Virginia Scholar Madison Robinson enrolled here at West Virginia Wesleyan, and she will graduate this year, and she’s going on to medical school,” Thierstein said. “It’s fantastic and one of the joys of my job is I get to be around this group of kids every day.”

Kercheval said it was refreshing to talk about such a positive program, rather than other depressing news.

“I tell you, Dr. Thierstein, when I have talked to these students I’m always encouraged because as I said, not all the news is good and then these are bright young people they have the whole world ahead of them, and they’re so optimistic and energetic about what they want to do, and it really is encouraging,” Kercheval said.

Thierstein said Wesleyan considers itself the best four-year residential college in the state and offers a more personalized experience for its students.

“We tout ourselves as the best, and so this is a fantastic place to go; you get very personalized attention here, very small class sizes, very good attention, not only from faculty but also from staff, the mentoring comes at all levels, as I said, not only from the faculty members who are around, but also from staff who dedicate their lives to the students here at Wesleyan,” Thierstein said.

In addition to WVWC and WVMetroNews, the West Virginia Scholar Program is sponsored by Friends of Coal, High Technology Foundation, Lou Wendell Marine Sales, the West Virginia Farm Bureau, West Virginia Hospital Association and ZMM Architects and Engineers.

Students may apply for the WV Scholar Program online at wvscholar.com.