Saint Louis High School senior Laney Pestrue was awarded the Central Michigan University Centralis Gold scholarship earlier this month. 

The Centralis Gold is an award given to high school seniors and is a full tuition (33 credits per year), admission to Central Michigan honors program, which also includes a $5,000 study abroad award. “I was pretty confident with how the competition went so I wasn’t insanely surprised, but I also wasn’t expecting it,” expressed Pestrue. 

Pestrue is a very dedicated student and has taken the right classes over the years to best prepare her for college. She is also very involved at Saint Louis High School participating in cross country, basketball, track, Business Professionals of America, National Honors Society,and Spanish club. When asked if Pestrue was going to attend Central she expressed, “I am currently making a tough choice between Central and Northern Michigan University.”

“A lot went into this scholarship,” explained Pestrue. “I had to talk about what I am involved in and prior work experience I’ve had. I had 40 minutes to write an essay with the prompt of, ‘if you could have a long dinner conversation with two people from history, who would you choose?’ I chose Harriet Tubman and Bob Saget. I think writing about Saget helped me stand out. I also had to make a creative piece. My piece was a collage of the places I’ve traveled. I included some cool pictures and got to talk about all my trips.”

Pestrue was asked to give advice to future students applying for scholarships. She said,“My biggest piece of advice would be to start early since applications take a long time. It’s also important because you need letters of recommendation and your reference needs notice.”