By SHERRY DIGMON
News Publisher
Only five years ago, the Escambia County High School senior class broke the $1 million mark in scholarships for the first time. Each year, the class has topped the total of the previous year’s class.
The Class of 2020 didn’t just break all previous records – they shattered them with more than $15 million scholarship offers, almost double last year’s amount.
In a normal year, the announcement would have been made at Class Day with the auditorium full of students and guests. This year’s announcement was made before an auditorium of empty seats Friday, May 15, as ECHS counselor Ashley Trawick and principal Amy Cabaniss conducted an abbreviated Class Day aired on social media. Following Cabaniss’ remarks, the camera panned across the auditorium seats, with a picture of a senior attached to each seat.
Dennis Fuqua became ECHS principal in 2014 and resigned in December 2019. These were his students almost their entire high school career.
About this class, Fuqua said, “Thank you so much for allowing me to say something about this year’s graduating class. This class of Blue Devils accepted the challenge issued to them four years ago with open arms. Their hard work and determination are easy to see with this astonishing scholarship total! I tip my hat to the students, their families, and the counselor at ECHS for another job well done. I can’t wait to see what this class produces in the future, and as always it is a GREAT DAY TO BE A BLUE DEVIL.”
Amy Cabaniss was named ECHS principal in March.
“I am not a bit surprised at the scholarship offers to our ECHS students,” she said. “Any college or university should be proud to have them. They are super students and our counselor, Ashley Trawick, works with them all year to help them get their applications submitted. Mrs. Trawick works extremely hard with all of the seniors to make sure they have as many opportunities to continue their education as possible. I hope the Atmore community realizes what an amazing feat this is.”
Ashley Trawick came to ECHS as counselor in 2016.
Following is the ECHS scholarship timeline:
2014: $900,000
2015: $1.2 million
2016: $1.8 million
2017: $4.4 million
2018: $5.7 million
2019: $8.6 million
2020: $15,053,518