Cooking up cash

You can buy a lot of fried chicken with $20,000.
However, that is not how Michelle Dunn, a 2011 GHS graduate, will be using her college scholarship from the Kentucky Fried Chicken Foundation. Dunn was one of the lucky winners of the $20,000 award at the annual GHS Senior Awards ceremony on June 1. She wasn’t as surprised the night of the awards as many others were, however.
‘I had been notified a few weeks before that I was one of the winners when I got a call from the Executive Director of the KFC corporation. But I was still anticipating it the night I knew it would be announced,? said Dunn.
The nationwide award had around 150,000 applicants but only 75 recieved the grand prize of $20,000, with local Dunn being one of them. But it isn’t everyday that you hear about a graduate from the small town of Goodrich recieving such a large amount from an international corporation.
‘I couldn’t stop smiling and saying thank you the day when I found out I had won. I called all of my family to let them know right away, it was really amazing,? said Dunn.
The recent graduate had heard about the scholarship from a co-worker at her job at Bueche’s Food World the last summer. ‘I went online to check it out and decided to apply last fall,? Dunn said. Dunn had an extensive application to go through, however, answering ‘a bunch of little essays? about all different parts of her life, ranging from how many volunteer hours she had given back to her community to the amount of responsiblity she has in her home.
‘The application really went in depth about how much responsibility, leadership, and extracurricular activities I had while still juggling a good GPA,? said Dunn.
In order to keep the scholarship and her title as a KFC Colonal Scholar, Dunn must maintain an upstanding reputation and also have at least 300 hours of volunteering or work experience while in college, starting her sophomore year.
‘They want to make sure their company is being represented well, so it is required that we use about 10 hours of the mandatory volunteer time to help at a soup kitchen, which is something KFC wants to promote,? said Dunn.
Dunn will be attending Ferris State University in the fall, majoring in Biology with a concentration in Pre-Veterinarian study. She has also recieved $3,000 from the Sam Walton Community Scholarship, funded by Wal-Mart, as well as multiple Ferris State scholarships.