United Power 2023 scholarship recipients announced

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

United Power made its selection of the 2023 scholarship recipients, awarding more than $20,000 in scholarships to students that live in its service territory.

e United Power selected 20 high school students with notable high test scores and grades, participating in extracurricular activities and community involvement. Each student is required to submit a written essay. According to United Power o cials, the application for scholarships is available by December each year.

Local awardees include graduates from Brighton, Fort Lupton Frederick and ornton.

Prairie View High School graduate Margaret McEldowney will take her love for theater, dancing and performance to the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley. McEldowney plans to major in acting. She received the United Power Book Scholarship for $1,000.

“I have always loved theatre and performance, and my ultimate goal is to pursue that as a career. UNC is the perfect place to develop the skills to be a professional, which makes it my dream school and a dream come true to get to study acting there,” she said.

She hopes to be a professional actor on stage or screen and come back to her community to give back to programs supporting her.

“I know there are no guarantees for the future. I would love to stay in Colorado because I love it here, but eventually, I might end up in New York or elsewhere for theater,” she said.

Brighton’s Dylan Leonard said his interest is science. He’s attending Colorado School of Mines after graduation from Brighton High School. He received the Bill Berens Memorial scholarship for $1,000.

“I plan to major in mechanical en- gineering with a focus on aerospace engineering,” Leonard said. “I was really unsure about both my college and major for a long time. I really had no clue about where I wanted to go, all I knew was I wanted to create things. is led me to Mines.”

Once Leonard visited the School of Mines, he knew it was a match to enroll in the engineering program. “ e engineering program there is amazing and it will give me the best chance to go far in my career. My major was undecided until only recently, but after thinking about it, I realized that I have always been