By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Local high school students can get college scholarship money by doing some work outside the classroom through the United Way’s Take the Lead program.

Four students who are in their sophomore or junior year can get up to $4,000 by coming up with a service project that addresses a community need.

“It’s whatever they make it into whatever issue they deem most important,” coordinator Katie McHugh said. “They can either start an awareness campaign, they can start a service project or anything like that.”

McHugh said the program is intended to cultivate leadership skills, learn about fundraising and marketing and come up with strategies to solve problems.

Last year the group focused on dropping graduation rates.

“A lot of them said they had no idea there were so many organizations in the community and so many different needs,” McHugh said. “A lot of the kids who do this might not have seen some of the issues they learned about.”

The program is funded through a grant by Youth Service America. Heartland Bank and Trust of Bloomington provided a matching grant.

The deadline to apply is Oct. 13. You can register at www.uwaymc.org.

McHugh noted three students who had previously participated in the program will come back to help as mentors.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].