Eight students from Pueblo County high schools will receive a scholarship for the upcoming fall 2010 semester, receiving funding covering tuition and book costs for up to five years.

The Kane Scholarship is an entirely merit-based scholarship awarded to one student at each Pueblo area high school looking to pursue a bachelor’s degree.

Selections for the scholarship are made based on each student’s high school academic record, essay, interview and high school recommendation.

Pueblo Centennial High School, Pueblo Central High School, Pueblo West High School, Pueblo South High School, Pueblo County High School, Pueblo East High School and Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School, along with Rye High School and Pueblo Tech Academy combined for the eighth scholarship, and will all be contacted by university officials for their list of top graduating seniors to start looking at potential students.

The scholarship is part of the Colorado State University-Pueblo online scholarship application, which was made available on Jan. 1, 2010.

The application is required to be completed by March if students hope to receive full scholarship consideration, which includes more than 100 additional scholarships, the CSU-Pueblo Web site states. Students interested in applying for the scholarships are also encouraged to apply for admission to CSU-Pueblo.

For more than 50 years, Alexander “Andy” Kane and his wife, Wanden, ranched in the Fountain, Colo., area despite living very different lives, a 2007 article by the Pueblo Chieftain states.

According to the article, Andy, a cowboy that never finished high school, and his wife, a New York native that was capable of speaking seven languages, left behind more than $25 million in a foundation they created to give financial support through scholarships to those in the Pikes Peak region.

Not limited solely to CSU-Pueblo, the Kane Foundation also gives away scholarship opportunities to students at Pueblo Community College, the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak Community College and Otero Junior College.

Applications for the Kane Scholarship will be reviewed in February, followed by interviews of chosen finalists at each school. Recipients will be announced in late March and are invited to bring their parents to a banquet commemorating their accomplishments, and featuring previous Kane Scholars and Kane Family Foundation representatives.

Last year’s Kane Foundation Scholars featured five of the eight chosen students ranking in the top ten percent of their graduating classes, with four students totaling a cumulative GPA of a 4.0 or above. One student, Garrison Ortiz, compiled more than 70-plus hours of college credit during his high school career.

While many of the students chosen said they seek to reshape the American culture or society, the 2009 Kane Scholar class also featured a diverse set of interests and accomplishments ranging from one animal lover hoping to open her own veterinary practice, to another aspiring to design mechanical parts through engineering.

The 2009 Kane Scholars were: Josh Luna, Centennial High School; Jessica Hartman, County High School; Courtney Linn, Pueblo West High School; Garrison Ortiz, Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School; Morgan Purkey, South High School; Sarah Mutz, Central High School; Sendi Peregrino, East High School, and Andrew Hawk, Pueblo Technical Academy.