Prizes awarded in Rising Star of the West Scholarship Contest

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - This is always one of our favorite times of the year, handing out the prizes in our Rising Star of the West Scholarship Contest. That happened Wednesday after announcing the winners on Tuesday.

This year, we’re giving away a total of $7,500 in scholarships from Black Hills FOX and Monument Health.

Stevens senior Elliot Hendrix came away as our winner this year. That came from a combination of your scores online and the scores of our Black Hills FOX panel. That earns Elliot a $4,000 dollar college scholarship when he heads off to Cornell. He says he was watching with his family when we made the announcement.

Hendrix says, “I was confident that I would be up there in rankings but I wasn’t sure because you never know. I was a little bit surprised but mostly excitement when I saw that I had won.”

The difference in the score between first and second place was incredibly close this year. Central senior Amelie Wilcox finished second in this year’s contest, earning her a $2,000 scholarship before she goes to SDSU-Western Dakota Tech..

Wilcox says, “I’ve had a really great time within this. I’ve been able to grow my public speaking skills, be more innovative with my brain. And really, this scholarship money is going to help me pay for my nursing education and continue that forward. It’s been incredible.”

Third place in this year’s contest went to Central High School junior Amelia Schaefbauer. After her senior year, Amelia will have a $1,000 scholarship waiting for her. And since she has another year of high school, she says you may see her in the contest again.

Schaefbauer says, “This experience was absolutely amazing. Honestly, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experience before, actually going on TV, actually being able to get out there and share my opinions that I’m super, super passionate about and it’s been just great overall. I really appreciate the experience.”

Spearfish High School senior Claire Nida finished fourth in this year’s contest. That gets her a $500 scholarship. She says going through the process was a good experience.

Nida says, “It was really fun to push myself outside my comfort zone and learn more about how the news programs run, see the studio and everything and get to think about the questions you guys asked.”

Claire is heading to USD to study elementary education and special education.

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