RCTC OAKS Scholarship celebration

(ABC 6 News) – Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) held its 22nd annual OAKS Scholarship celebration Thursday.

OAKS stands for Overcoming Adversity Keeping Strong, and Thursday nine students were recognized and had the opportunity to share their story.

One of the recipients, Autumn Grover, said this will most likely change her life.

Grover said she faced a lot of struggles at home growing up, and at times during high school she had to work 2-3 jobs.

“It was a lot of happy tears, a lot of sad tears… because it was such a traumatic thing for me to go through as a child.  But, at the same fact it just blows my mind.  It just proves to me that I can get somewhere so, so much higher up,” said Grover.

All nine of the recipients are pursuing higher education, and had to be nominated in order to be considered for the award.

“These students have incredible strength and resilience and determination in pursuing their goals, and they are here despite the fact that they’ve had to go through more than many of us would ever contemplate,” said RCTC Foundation Advancement Coordinator Kristin Mannix.

The scholarship is $2,500 divided equally into two semesters.

Thursday’s event was to raise more funds to help more students in the future.

ABC 6 News is a proud sponsor of the event.