Indian Hills Community College recently announced the Bill and Ardis Evans award winners.. This year’s recipients are Ottumwa sixth grade students Elijah DePaz and Kahlia Morales. DePaz is the son of Glendy DePaz. Morales is the daughter of Kristine Kaelin and Juan Morales-Lozano.
Since 1989, $372,000 in Evans Scholarships have been awarded to 62 students. These scholarships were established at Indian Hills Community College by Bill and Ardis Evans, who spent a combined 51 years of teaching. The couple believed that offering scholarships to sixth graders gives young people the incentive to improve or maintain their grades and be good citizens. The scholarship recipients are nominated and selected based on their academic achievement, character, attendance, and extracurricular activities.
The Indian Hills Community College Foundation Scholarship Committee selects the winners. Under the scholarship guidelines, the recipients must complete their first two years of post-secondary education at Indian Hills before transferring to a four-year college or university.
DePaz and Morales were awarded $1,000 college scholarships this past week. They will earn an additional $1,000 each year through their senior year in high school, provided they meet specified criteria. Both students have the potential to accrue $7,000 towards their college education by the time they graduate from high school.