By Rick Williams

Chelsea Ott, a senior at Lyndon Institute and a member of the Northern Vermont University Lyndon Upward Bound Program, has recently been awarded the Saint Michael’s College Vermont Presidential Scholarship. To be eligible for the Presidential Scholarship, students must be nominated by a Vermont high school, maintain an A- or higher average in a challenging college preparatory high school curriculum, and be in the top 10% of their graduating class. Chelsea’s award covers the entire cost of tuition at Saint Michael’s for four years, a scholarship with a value of over $190,000!

At LI, Chelsea maintains outstanding grades while taking the hardest classes available to her, participating in sports, and being very involved in her school and community. Chelsea maintains a very rigorous course load of AP, dual enrollment, honors and accelerated classes, and is a member of the National Honor Society. She has developed outstanding relationships with her teachers and her peers and has become a very important part of Lyndon Institute. Chelsea was recently notified that she was selected as the top student in the school and received national recognition from the College Board for Academic Achievement on the AP exams for the National Rural and Small Town Award.

In addition to her academics, Chelsea is also an outstanding three sport athlete, participating in Field Hockey, Softball and Dance. Through Upward Bound, she has taking advantage of just about every activity that has been offered to her including numerous college tours, the Green Mountain Scholars Bowl (2021, 2022) and was selected to represent our program at the New England Student Leadership Conference at the Hulbert Center in Fairlee. This event brings together almost 80 students from throughout New England for a three day immersive and intensive program.  It is also one of the most culturally diverse conferences available to TRIO students – combining rural students from Vermont and Maine with urban scholars from Fall River, Massachusetts, Boston, and Rhode Island. This was an exceptional experience for Chelsea and she thrived in this opportunity. She was able to share her views on national issues, address the issue of social justice, and work with a wide range of students from schools that had more than 4000 students – very different than rural Lyndon Institute. 

In the community, she has volunteered more than 150 hours – even through the pandemic – volunteering at Northern Vermont Regional Hospital, Burklyn Arts, the Methodist church as a peer tutor, through the National Honor Society, and as a student volunteer at several student open houses at LI. This is all in addition to having a part time job cleaning houses for three rental properties in the Northeast Kingdom.

Chelsea is purposeful in her academics, passionate about dance, and fully prepared to take on college. She understands that education is the key to future success and opportunity, and works diligently every day to be the best student that she can. She is really one of the very best our small state and our small schools have to offer, and colleges are recognizing her for her outstanding work. 

Upward Bound at Northern Vermont University - Lyndon is a college preparatory program funded through the United States Department of Education. The program is committed to providing modest income, first in family, college bound students with the academic background, college preparatory experiences, and support to succeed in college immediately after high school. The Upward Bound program works with 75 students in 10 area high schools who are dedicated to achieving their post-secondary dreams.