Sophomore Scholars Program
The Sophomore Scholars Program is the primary WHSAA pathway for WHS Alums to provide meaningful academic support to current Waggener students.
In a nutshell, the Alumni Association has committed to funding nearly all the ‘unmet need’ of College NoW Dual-Credit courses for the entire sophomore class, on an ongoing basis – and this we are calling the Sophomore Scholars Program.
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College NoW is a challenging and successful academic program available at Waggener as part of its inclusion in the Academies of Louisville.
It offers WHS students the opportunity to earn more than 30 college credit hours through managed partnerships with Kentucky colleges and universities including UofL, UofK, WKU, Campbellsville University and JCTC.
More details can be found here and from presentation slides prepared by principal Dr. Sarah Hitchings.
Dual-credit courses are being taken by all four grades at Waggener – even freshman!
There is some funding from the state (Career Tech Ed and General Ed grants) for Juniors and Seniors, and the unmet need for Freshman is currently being taken care of by the Prospect / Goshen Rotary.
We were approached by Dr. Hitchings to consider helping out with the sophomores and the Board decided it was the perfect way for the Alumni Association to provide broad support for academics at WHS.
Here is a graphic that depicts the slot we are focusing on.
There are separate sections of sophomores for each of the 2 Academies: Health Science and IT & Law.
Each section has roughly 25 students, so ~50 students in all, will benefit from this program (each year).
Dual-credit courses are taught by college staff, and the colleges charge $100 / credit hour / student, directly billed to Waggener.
The World History 102 course is a 3-hour course, so $300 / course / student.
For ~50 students, that comes to $15,000, as the unmet need.
The Board decided to make a minimum $10,000 commitment this year and will support the sophomores in Spring 2026.
These are college-level classes and provide college credit.
It is shown that students who participate in a dual-credit program go to college at a rate higher than those that do not, and they enter college with previously earned credits. This possibly reduces the entire financial burden on them and their families as they continue with college.
Anecdotally, many WHS students are first-generation college-bound, and for many, English is not their primary language. This program is a verified pathway to higher education and college preparedness.
The Sophomore Scholars Program (SSP) will replace the WHSAA Scholarships as the mechanism for Alumni to support and reward academic excellence for current Waggener students.
This choice was made by the Board for several reasons:
– The scholarships were only given to a very limited number of students (5-7)
– In reality, the scholarship amount provides a limited impact
– The scholarship selection process was fairly onerous on students and Board members
– The SSP assists ~ 50 kids per year and their inclusion is inherent success in their Academy
– The CollegeNoW program is the default path for WHS students to enter college
– Other groups have transitioned their academic support in exactly this way