Goddard senior one of Gore scholarship winners at Wichita State

The pathways to learning start in many places unforeseen.

Ryan Lee, a kid at Eisenhower High School in Goddard, at first just wanted to study Chinese.

Amy Lightfoot, a Colorado native, has a cousin who has severe autism. The cousin inspired her to study speech pathology, Lightfoot said, so she can help the deaf, the disabled and the disadvantaged of the world.

Lightfoot and Lee, 18-year-old high school seniors, were announced as Gore Scholars at Wichita State University on Thursday.

The $52,000 Harry Gore Memorial Scholarship to each winner is among the largest undergraduate awards in Kansas.

Lee started high school aiming for a career in engineering, but that shifted after his first class in Mandarin Chinese. “And after I got interested in the language, I began to realize that Chinese and business go hand in hand,” Lee said. With the rise of China in the world economy, his own country needs multilingual people, trained to help build economic bridges, either in foreign affairs or in business, he said. He wants to study international business at Wichita State.

His career may eventually lead him to stay close to home, or at least apply someday to work for a company with headquarters close to home, he said. Koch Industries is building plants, businesses and connections all over the world, including in Asia. Lee admires the company and hopes to work for them someday, he said.

But like Lightfoot, his overall goal is to help others, he said. He wants to make business a positive force, not only in the economy but among people. “I want to someday change the perception that many people have of business,” he said. “Many people think business is greedy old men trying to get more. I’d like to help businesses do more to help not only the economy but the entire community.”

Lightfoot, a graduate of Rampart High School in Colorado Springs, has spent much of her young life helping the disabled, mentoring middle school students, and serving as her high school class president all four years. She created a charity to help students with special needs. “It’s my great passion to help other people,” she said.

The Gore scholarships, awarded annually since 1954, recognize leadership and academic skills, WSU said in a news release. Theodore and Ralph Gore established the scholarship in 1952 to honor their father. Harry Gore had been a Russian immigrant who believed in young people and the need for education, WSU officials said.

Each of the winners will receive $13,000 a year for four years to attend WSU, totaling $52,000 each.

To be invited to compete for the scholarship, students had to have a 24 or higher ACT score and a minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA, WSU said in the release. The 10 finalists this year have an average ACT score of 28 and average GPA of 3.8, WSU said. The scholarship focuses on students who demonstrate leadership ability both on and off campus, WSU officials said.

The other eight will receive smaller but competitive scholarship packages to attend WSU. They are:

▪ Meghan Carver, Mulvane, Mulvane High School

▪ Austin Greathouse, Garden City, Garden City High School

▪ MD Joad, Wichita, Wichita East High School

▪ Kyle Kopecky, Leawood, Blue Valley North High School

▪ Katie Murray, Rolla, Rolla High School

▪ Emily Sarnacki, Winfield, Winfield High School

▪ Jessica Vold, Leavenworth, Leavenworth High School

▪ Christopher Vuong, Wichita, Wichita Southeast High School

This story was originally published February 26, 2015 at 1:10 PM with the headline "Goddard senior one of Gore scholarship winners at Wichita State."