Academy offers arts scholarships, seminars in alumnus' memory
4/20/2011Sylvania Franciscan Academy has created a two-part program, including scholarships and on-campus instructional seminars for northwest Ohio art teachers, to promote the arts in the memory of an alumnus who died in an accident last year.
The Jake Thornton Art Project, established by The LaValley Family Foundation and the John Jacob Foundation, will fund three partial scholarships for middle-school students who excel in the visual arts and pay for the seminars, which will be led by Will McCullough, a local visual and performance artist, and artist and teacher Beth McArthur.
Scholarship applicants must complete a written application and submit a portfolio of original art before being interviewed by a review panel. Scholarship recipients will be expected to produce art in various media during the academic year while maintaining a minimum grade-point average of 2.5 in core curriculum areas. They will be mentored by Ms. McArthur and selected Lourdes College faculty.
Mr. Thornton, a member of the academy's Class of 2005, was killed Sept. 23, 2009, while riding a dirt bike in Sylvania Township when he was struck by an ATV that had climbed the opposite side of a hill he was climbing on his bike and vaulted over into his path.