MADISON COUNTY — Three Madison County students are among 200 high school and college students selected for Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarships, offered through the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

This is the second year the financial award, which helps pay for schooling, has been given to state high school and college students seeking careers in education.

The local county winners are: Kama Clevenger, a 2017 graduate of Pendleton Heights High School attending Butler University; Bailey Miles, a Pendleton Heights senior who will attend Taylor University; and Alyssa Whaley, a Lapel High School senior who plans to attend Ball State University.

Whaley plans to study elementary education at Ball State and follow in the footsteps of her mother, Carmen Whaley, a fourth-grade teacher at Lapel Elementary School, and her grandmother, who was also an educator, she said.

“When I found out about this award, something that can help me pay for college, that can help me become a teacher, it was like, it just makes things so much easier,” Whaley said.

Miles, who was also thrilled to win the award, plans to become a high school Spanish teacher. She, too, has family members who are teachers and felt education was her calling.

From her great-grandmother to her father, teaching has been the family business, as has acquiring new skills, such as learning to speak foreign languages.

“I’ve been taking Spanish since eighth grade, and I’ve really enjoyed it because it just kind of clicked with me,” Miles said.

As the country becomes more and more diverse, being able to speak and teach Spanish, she said, will be a huge asset.

The recipients were selected through a competitive process based on their academic achievements and other educational factors. Winners will receive $7,500 annually, and up to $30,000 total, for committing to teach in Indiana for at least five years after graduating from college.

“We’re encouraged to have so many driven, passionate students applying for this teacher scholarship, and we look forward to the positive impact they will have in classrooms and school communities across Indiana,” Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Teresa Lubbers wrote in a press release.

A total of 510 students applied for the 2018-19 Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship, with applications coming from 231 high schools in 86 of Indiana’s 92 counties.

About two-thirds of applicants were Indiana high school seniors, with the remainder comprised of current college students.

The program is important, its creators said, because it helps encourage teens to consider careers in education and then remain in the state to teach, where their services are needed.

“Teachers are incredibly influential in students’ lives, which makes a career in education both challenging and rewarding,” House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, wrote in the press release.

Bosma is the author of the legislation creating the scholarship program.

“It is my hope these scholarship recipients will use their dedication, creativity and compassion to help Hoosier students realize their full potential,” Bosma said.

To qualify for the scholarship, students must either graduate in the top 20 percent of their high school class or earn a score in the top 20th percentile on the SAT or ACT.

To continue earning the scholarship in college, students must earn a 3.0 cumulative grade-point average and complete at least 30 credit hours per year.