MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Your Community Foundation of North Central West Virginia has announced a new round of scholarship recipients for the 2025-26 school year.
YCF of North Central West Virginia President Patty Showers Ryan announced on WAJR’s Talk of the Town that over $303,000 in scholarships were awarded to over 109 recipients as part of over 40 scholarship funds that are managed by the organization. Recipients included students from Monongalia, Preston, and Marion counties, among many others, who will use the funds to further support their secondary education.
“We have scholarships ranging from $500 all the way up to $20,000, and any amount is really important,” said Showers Ryan.
According to Showers Ryan, the scholarship winners included students from Morgantown High School, University High School, Clay-Battelle High School, and Harrison County and Taylor County schools, among many others. The recipients of the scholarships followed a criterion seen in similar scholarship applications, which include an interview process as well as GPA requirement minimums. The winners received their awards as part of special ceremonies hosted at each high school by the YCF of North Central West Virginia, with awards also given to certain West Virginia residents who reside in the Mountain State.
“We spent a lot of time going to high school auditoriums and gyms to award these funds to those students,” said Showers Ryan on WAJR’s Talk of the Town. “And they’re not all high school seniors, some of them maybe are already in school, and some of them are maybe graduate students, it’s really what the donor would like to see.”
The YCF of North Central West Virginia introduced three new scholarships during the 2025 awards giving period with three different focuses for recipients. This included the Barbara Ann Kercheval Scholarship aimed at seniors at Preston County High School, the Jarret E. Loar Scholarship for Monongalia County students enrolled at WVU for engineering, and the West Virginia Black Heritage/Kelly Miller Scholarship. Each of the 109 scholarships that are awarded each year are tailored to meet certain requirements that are made at the request of the donors, regardless of amount.
“Maybe if there isn’t a student seeking a four-year degree, is a vocational school an opportunity for the scholarship fund,” said Showers Ryan on the level of changes that can be made depending of who applies for scholarships. “A lot of donors provide that flexibility.”
The YCF of North Central West Virginia manages assets of over $25 million that support endowments beyond the numerous scholarships that are awarded each year. This includes grants that ranged from organizational arts grants and charitable interest grants for residents in Taylor County to the highly regarded educator mini-grants that are awarded to teachers for educational material needs. With the funds strictly supported through local donations and maintained through market-managed endowment funds, the YCF of North Central West Virginia is happy to see local contributions be used to help Mountain State students.
“You know those larger amounts are tremendous and also encouraging for these students to continue their education after high school,” said Showers Ryan.
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