The Lariat Future Innovators Foundation has selected three outstanding students as its 2021 Lariat STEM Scholars. The Lariat STEM Scholars for the 2021-22 school year are Jacob Adams, Camryn Tims and Anna Wright.
The Lariat STEM Scholarship Program supports STEM students who live in rural areas (with less than 25,000 in population) in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, or Texas.
“Many students take a bus for 30 minutes or so to get to high school outside their small towns, and this doesn’t necessarily mean they go to anything that could be called a city,” Jason Wilson, founder of the Lariat Future Innovators Foundation, told The University Network. “Resources are more scarce in these small towns. For instance, there is a lack of libraries and museums. Finally, incomes are generally fairly low in these rural areas. All these items pose a barrier to entry for students wishing to pursue careers requiring higher education.”
The foundation is funded by a small group of current and retired biotech executives who, like Wilson, came from small towns and recognize that the lack of resources in rural areas presents unique challenges for students.
“It was kind of a vision, mainly of Jason’s, after retirement, to do something for kids kind of like us, or maybe slightly less fortunate. We want to be able to give them a leg up and move them forward in their academic careers,” Keith Ward, a board member of the Lariat Future Innovators Foundation, told TUN.
2021 Lariat STEM Scholars
Jacob Adams
Senior at Louisiana Tech UniversityMajoring in Biomedical Engineering
Camryn Tims
Freshman at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge Majoring in Biological Sciences/Biology
Anna Wright
Senior at New College Of FloridaMajoring in Physical Chemistry
The winners were selected based on their academic scores, SAT/ACT scores, academic awards and written essays.
