By Natalie Felsen

Glancey brought in over $1.4 million, while Zebrowski is worth nearly half a million. Glancey is going to the U.S. Naval Academy, while Zebrowski will attend the University of Chicago.

As of Wed. May 26, Franklin seniors have earned $13,815,749 in university monies, surpassing last year’s total amount. Furthermore, this amount is projected to increase.

“University monies are scholarships and some financial aid such as Pell grants,” scholarship coordinator Bonnie McLaughlin said. “We believe that [this number] is going to go up because we have to yet to get some information from New Mexico State. We have students who will go to New Mexico State, and they’re usually eligible for a state tuition waver.”

Due to the FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), the counseling center is unable to release individual accumulations. Senior Nick Zebrowski, however, is not shy about the fact that he has earned over $500K in scholarships. Though, he does not have the exact total.

“I don’t have a record of the amount due to some unfortunate and tragic circumstances,” Zebrowski said. “My mother felt that her prized living room was being invaded by my massive amount of papers, which included all of my scholarship letters, and proceeded to put them through the shredder.”

The mess, however, was not of his own making.

“I only applied to one [scholarship] – the El Paso Sunturian PassPort scholarship, where I conveniently earned two round-trip tickets a year for four years,” Zebrowski said. “However, for the most part I feel like there must have been some sort of divine intervention involved, because schools where I did not apply would call me and offer me bountiful amounts of money.”

Despite the attention, Zebrowski is unphased.

“I don’t feel like I am worth half a million dollars,” Zebrowski said. “I am priceless, like an ancient Chinese vase; save for the fact that I am not useless.”

Zebrowski says the scholarship money insures sanity.

“Having these scholarships, particularly the full tuition at the University of Chicago, where I will be attending in the fall, will enable me to enjoy college life with the ease of mind that I will not be drowning in debt for years to come,” Zebrowski said.

Zebrowski is not the only moneymaker. Senior Megan Glancey received $835K in scholarships, including a full ride to the US Naval Academy, setting her on the path to becoming a naval officer.

“I didn’t know if I was getting into the [Naval] Academy, but I knew that I wanted to be an officer in the navy,” Glancey said.

The lengthy application for scholarships did not cause Glancey to doubt.

“My application process [for the ROTC scholarship] started last August,” Glancey said. “I went to the local recruiter, talked to him, gave an interview and started the basic scholarship process. He told me that I was on the fast track to receiving my scholarship because my credentials were good.”

Then the money poured in.

“First, I was accepted to the prep school, which was worth $125K for a year long program,” Glancey said. “Then I held out and was accepted to the Naval Academy, and that was worth about $540K. I applied to Baylor because it didn’t require an essay and there was no application fee. I didn’t really want to go to Baylor, but they gave me $50K.”

Glancey says that the military’s investment will be repaid in full.

“I’ll repay every cent through my service,” Glancey said. “I’m selling myself to the sea.”