EPHS Senior Receives Golden Apple Scholarship

EPHS Senior Olivia Vitacco has been awarded the Golden Apple Scholarship for her dedication to teaching while still in high school!

Vitacco plans to study Special Education at Illinois State University in the fall with the scholarship. The Golden Apple Scholarship provides tuition assistance to Illinois students who have committed early on to teaching. Those who receive the scholarship have committed to spending the first five years of their career in an Illinois school-of-need after graduation. 

Vitacco discovered how much she enjoyed teaching while TAing for Ms. Clays and senior leadership with Ms. Franklin. She has since been an extra set of hands for other EPHS teachers and has gained a variety of classroom experiences. Vitacco was also recently recognized as a SCOTY student for her time student teaching at EPHS, read more about her experience here. 

“At the start of last year, I had no idea what I wanted to do after high school”, Vitacco said. “Now, I can’t see myself doing anything other than teaching and helping kids.”

Besides her own experience in the classroom and the teachers she worked with, Vitacco was influenced by the role her teachers such as Mrs. Rogas, Ms.  Allman, and Principal Dr. Brode-Rico in her time at EPHS. As she reflects on how much she has changed since her freshman year, she feels she has grown into a very different person. She is particularly grateful for the leadership skills EPHS staff helped her develop. 

She looks forward to applying this growth in a school-of-need. Vitacco says that her experience problem-solving and achieving small milestones in student-teaching at EPHS has helped her learned how rewarding student growth that can’t be mentioned in GPA or test scores is. 

“Seeing the great teachers at EPHS, what they do for the students, and how they impacted me, it’s very inspirational,” she said. “Not just in academic education, but in preparing students for life as a whole person as they go in the real world.” 

Congratulations to Vitacco and all of our EPHS scholarship recipients!