L-R: Stuart Library Director Lisa Sherman, Foundation members Karen Varley and Debbie Wilson, scholarship recipients Danielle Morgan and Kyle Fairchild, Foundation members Marvin Lancaster and Russ Wagner.

For the next decade young adults living in the West Central Valley School District have the opportunity to travel abroad to learn more about their passions thanks to a local scholarship program, and the first two to go on their aspired journey were announced this week.

The Stuart Library Foundation selected siblings 22-year-old Kyle Fairchild and 24-year-old Danielle Morgan to receive the first annual international travel scholarship to travel to Peru next May. This scholarship was funded by a $100,000 anonymous donation to be awarded for the next 10 years to those ages 18-25 who wish to travel outside the U.S.

Morgan is the Adair County Extension Youth Development Coordinator, and she shares how this trip will benefit her professionally, “One thing that I do is Clover Kids, they’re really little kids, kindergarten through third grade. So I can take these lessons back to teach them about different cultures and of course we can do a STEM activity about architecture and things like that.”

Morgan also hopes to inspire young adults to travel and experience unfamiliar cultures. She and her brother were interviewed separately for the scholarship, and Foundation member Debbie Wilson says it was their maturity and excitement for the trip that won the scholarship committee over, “I will tell you that we had wonderful applicants this year, wonderful applicants and it was a hard decision to make, but we really believe that this is the correct decision for this year. And we’re looking forward to next year, we will have the applications ready to go again in 2020 and we hope that even more people will apply.”

Applicants who did not receive this year’s scholarships are also encouraged to apply next year.