Bloom Township Seniors Earn $31 million in Scholarships

The Bloom Township High School District 206 seniors continue to raise the bar, raising more than $31 million in scholarships between its two schools.

On Tuesday, May 8, both schools held Senior Night events, celebrating the successes of the Class of 2018. At Bloom High School, it was announced that nearly 100 students had earned more than $16 million in scholarships from several universities, including Alabama A&M, Xavier, Bradley and Rust College, along with dozens more. Ivie Osagiede, the Valedictorian for Bloom, earned a scholarship to attend University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Alyssa Dancy-Poole received the Devin Johnson Courageous Pursuit Scholarship and will attend Rasmussen College in the fall.

Bloom Trail High School had an equally powerful evening, celebrating $15 million in scholarships with students receiving full rides to several universities. Akinele Reece received offers from Northwestern, Notre Dame and Emory, while Valedictorian Taylor McGrath received a full-ride scholarship offer from Purdue University. Another Bloom Trail Senior, Roberto Julian Garcia totaled total more than $4 million in scholarship offers.

“Over the past three years we’ve seen our seniors earn more and more scholarships, all eager to learn at the best universities in America,” Navarre said. “I am proud of that our educators, our youth and our families have achieved together.”

Bloom and Bloom Trail had 120 seniors honored as part of the Early College Initiative, having taken courses at Prairie State College to award them with dual credit. Thirty students participated in the CNA program at Prairie State and will graduate with the credentials to work as certified nursing assistants. The district also recently rolled out Information Technology and Barber College programming, with 24 students participating in those programs this school year.