Student earns prestigious scholarship

William Saunders knows how to work. He held down a job at Sisters Bakery through high school while excelling in the classroom, on the lacrosse field and in the mountains he loves to climb.

That willingness to dig deep and work hard paid off in a major way for the recent Sisters High School graduate: he earned a prestigious Ford Family Foundation Scholarship. Saunders was one of 102 students selected as a Ford Scholar from among 5,443 applicants.

Eligibility criteria included merit and financial need. That work ethic mattered, too.

"They wanted you to have worked through high school," Saunders told The Nugget.

Saunders will attend the University of Oregon with a major in environmental studies.

"It will definitely make me appreciate every minute of schooling a lot more," Saunders said of the scholarship. "Knowing I'm going to come out of school debt-free - I couldn't ask for anything more."