Scholarship Opportunities for FHS and Pekin Students

This is a series of informative articles regarding the scholarships available from The Greater Jefferson County Foundation.

Jefferson County Senior Students have a unique opportunity to apply for over $150,000 of scholarships created by dedicated donors and administered by The Greater Jefferson County, who celebrates 50 years of service to Jefferson County in 2025.

This next scholarship is in memory of and FHS graduate who worked at NASA and was on Deepwater Horizon when it exploded in 2010. The Frank Ireland Scholarship is $1,000 for a student focusing on computer technology.

In 2023, a scholarship was created in memory of Music Teacher Jane Ruby in the amount of $1,500 for FHS students pursuing a career in Music Education.

In 2024, Dale Kraus created his family scholarship to award $5,000 to a graduating FHS senior student studying school audiology, novelist, film making, chemical engineering, photography, veterinary medicine, agriculture, conservation, landscaping, as well as community service.

The Mark Shafer Visual Arts Scholarship was created in 2024 and is a renewable $1,000 scholarship for a graduating FHS senior student studying Art Education.

The newest scholarship was created by Dr. Stephen Van Tasell and will be launched in 2026. This scholarship will be awarded to up to two graduating Pekin or FHS senior students who will be studying premed, pre-dental, pre-pharmacy or nursing and will be $1,000 each.

In this fourth article of the series, five scholarships have been emphasized to show the range of scholarship opportunities for graduating Senior students. In a nutshell, GJCF administers over 45 scholarships that have criteria ranging from Medicine, Business, Agriculture, Conservation, Horticulture, Teaching/Education, Mechanical/Welding/CAD, Math, Science, Photography, Music and much more!

The 2026 scholarship application process will begin November 1, 2025 with a deadline of February 1, 2026. Both FHS and Pekin senior students are invited to apply. Online applications will be available on the application website at www.gjcfscholarships.org. For more information, contact the Foundation at gjcf0758@windstream.net or call 641-472-0758. View our Facebook page for information as well!