The Sanilac County Community Foundation is pleased to announce that the recipients of the Kent and Lucille Freeland Scholarship are Lauren Barbarich and Rylie Kolakovich.
Lauren is a pre-doctoral student that just graduated from the Croswell-Lexington High School and St. Clair County Community College with an Associate’s degree in science, arts, and general education. Lauren was able to do this through CL5, a program offered at the Croswell-Lexington High School. CL5 allows eligible students to start dual enrollment their junior year and graduate with an associate’s degree for free if they stay back for a fifth year the community college. Stepping up to the college level at such a young age was very challenging, but Lauren was able to graduate at the top of her class as a senior scholar at the high school and with summa cum laude honors at the pre-med Bachelor’s in biology. Lauren has the all-time goal of becoming a sports physician because it combines something that she is passionate about, sports, with something that will challenge her to make the most of her abilities. During high school, she was a four-year varsity athlete on all three of the sports she competed in: cross-country, powerlifting, and soccer. Lauren also had the honor of being captain her senior year for cross-country and soccer and both her junior and senior years for powerlifting. Since she was still back at home during the school at the community college completing CL5, she was able to volunteer her time to come back and help coach all of these sports.
Rylie Kolakovich, graduate of Croswell-Lexington High School. She will be attending Oakland University this fall in their honors college and will earn a degree in BIoMedical Sciences.
During high school, Rylie participated in three sports; cross-country, powerlifting, and track. Before high school, Rylie had been a gymnast for eleven years. Aside from sports, she participated in National Honors Society each year as well as SADD and Conservation Club. Rylie is the daughter of Robert and Marcie Kolakovich.
The Kent and Lucille Freeland Scholarship Fund was established in 2016, and has been established for Croswell-Lexington High School graduates who have attained a minimum of a C average in their four years of high school and are in need of financial assistance to attend the accredited college, university, or trade school of their choice. Preference for one scholarship is to go to a graduate planning to major or significantly study physics and one scholarship to a graduate planning to study chemistry. Mr. Freeland was a long-time dedicated teacher of physics and chemistry at Croswell-Lexington High School. He attended numerous National Science Foundation Seminars to provide his students with exciting and current science and technology. He inspired his students with a positive, respectful, and fun-learning environment.
This scholarship is administered through the Sanilac County Community Foundation (SCCF). For more information on scholarship opportunities through the Sanilac County Community Foundation, contact Melissa Anderson, Executive Director, at the Foundation office at 810-648-3634.
