(KTNC) - A new scholarship seeks to benefit students who are members of a local Native American Tribe.
Own Your Legacy, which is a Michelle Kirkendall Peterson Legacy Foundation, is sponsoring the scholarship for members of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.
Larry Peterson is the executive director of Own Your Legacy. He says they plan to award three scholarships, the first to the Iowa Tribe. Peterson says they selected the Iowa Tribe for the first scholarship based on the history of the foundation. Michelle Kirkendall Peterson passed away of leukemia in 1998. She was a member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.
The initial award will be $1,000. The scholarship is open to high school seniors with a minimum 2.0-grade-point-average, who are enrolled in a college, university, or vocational school, and be a member of a federally recognized tribe. Peterson says applicants also must demonstrate leadership through what he calls a “legacy essay," in which students will define who they are and what their goals are for the future. Peterson says essays will be judged by an outside third-party.
 Scholarships will also be presented to the Kickapoo and Omaha Tribes. Peterson, who lives in Arizona, says he wanted to specifically target the scholarships to Native American Tribes in this area. That's because, he says, Native Americans in Nebraska have the lowest unemployment rate, and Native Americans in Kansas have one of the lowest dropout rates of Native Americans in the United States.
Apply for the scholarship online at www.ownyourlegacy.com.
Peterson says the foundation also plans to hold bone marrow drives in the Falls City and Hiawatha areas in the future.