Most students are lucky to receive one full-ride college scholarship offer.
Brown County High School senior Michael Hess has two.
Hess was named the 2017 Lilly Endowment Scholar by the Brown County Community Foundation. The Lilly Scholar receives full tuition to the Indiana college or university of his choice and a $900 yearly stipend for books and equipment.
But Hess also applied for a scholarship through QuestBridge, a nonprofit that connects low-income students with scholarship opportunities at some of the nation’s best colleges. He ended up receiving an almost $70,000-per-year scholarship to Claremont McKenna, a liberal arts college in California.
Now he has a decision to make.
As of last week, he hadn’t decided whether he would accept the Lilly scholarship. He’s been accepted into IUPUI, so he could use it there but not the college in California.
He actually missed the phone call telling him he had received the scholarship Dec. 16. He learned he was the recipient when someone posted on his Facebook timeline. He, his girlfriend and his parents were on the way back home from dinner when he found out.
“I was in the back of a car on the way home when I saw it, so it wasn’t a very great atmosphere to be festive, but I was excited,” he said.
If Hess decides not to accept it, the scholarship will go to one of the other finalists: Victoria Akles, Sean Lopes, Elisabeth Huls, Elizabeth Jenson or Andrew Burgess, the BCCF reported. Two alternates from that group were selected but not announced.
Life goals
If you ask Hess to tell you about himself, neuroscience will be one of the first things out of his mouth.“It’s a pretty integral part of my personality,” he said.
After attending four classes in the morning at the high school, Hess heads to Indiana University in Bloomington where he conducts tauopathy research at Lu Laboratory in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Tauopathies are a class of neurodegenerative diseases, such Alzheimer’s disease, ALS and multiple sclerosis.
The opportunity stemmed from Hess’ summer internship with the IU Project SEED program, for high school students interested in doing science and engineering research at the college level. Over the summer, Hess worked in an environmental science lab. The group went to Spring Mill State Park to take samples out of the logs to try to determine how old the pioneer structures were there, he said.
After the summer, Hess began inquiring about interning in other labs. Dr. Hui-Chen Lu was one of the first people to respond to Hess.
“I had recently read quite a few publications from her lab without knowing it,” he said. “Then whenever I went to meet her I saw the publications hanging on the wall and it sort of made a connection, made me realize that would be a good spot for me.”
The publications were about a connection between a certain enzyme in the brain and Alzheimer’s, Hess said.
“My great-grandmother struggled with Alzheimer’s whenever I was young. I had to see that, which it’s just horrifying what that disease does to you.”
He plans to study neuroscience in college. He said he is interested in the psychological aspects, like linguistics and cognition. In five years, Hess plans to either be in either graduate or medical school or in an MD-Ph.D program.
His goal is to become a neurosurgeon or a neuroscience researcher.
In his free time, Hess volunteers at Brown County Health and Living nursing home. He also works at the Nashville Fudge Kitchen.
Hess, the son of David and Cheryl Hess, attended kindergarten through 10th grade in Brown County Schools. His older brother attends Vincennes University.
He left his junior year to study at the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities, but returned home his senior year because Brown County High School allowed him to take time out of classes for his research opportunity.
Along with taking four classes and working in a research lab, Hess also teaches himself two classes that the high school doesn’t offer: Calculus BC, or the second year of calculus, and AP Physics C, a calculus-based physics class. Hess’ high school teachers are there to answer questions and give him topics to study, but he teaches himself using books, he said.
“I always just dedicate myself to everything I try and I never give up early on something that I want to pursue or stop trying when I know there’s other possibilities,” he said.
He credits his family and his friends for helping him be successful. He also gives credit to Brown County Schools for supporting his goals even after he left for the Indiana Academy. “They’ve always sort of given me the pat on the back that I needed to keep going and be the best that I can be,” he said.
His advice to freshmen? Spend twice as much time studying as you are now.
“I think that anyone who can take a passion in (studying) and take an interest in always learning will find opportunities beyond what they’d ever expect,” he said.
