Local & State Headlines

DWS grants tuition awards

• Two students look to their academic careers at an Albany private school.

Barbara Rivera Holmes

ALBANY — The significance of their Deerfield-Windsor School awards may already have hit Bryce Earnest and Bryant Thompson, but it’s just hitting their mothers.

“They had like a little middle school parent orientation ... and I started to get real excited,” Bryant’s mom, Cindy Thompson, said of the scholarship Bryant received for middle grades at Deerfield- Windsor in Albany.

“I never really thought that I’d go here, but now I get more excited,” said 13-year-old Bryce, a Junior Beta Club member and straight-A eighth- grader at Merry Acres Middle School who said many of her friends already attend the college preparatory school.

Bryant and Bryce are the latest recipients of a 25-year program that annually awards tuition scholarships to a sixth- grader and a ninth- or 10th- grader.

The Honor Scholarship Program attracts “outstanding students from the area who haven’t been exposed to Deerfield-Windsor,” Headmaster W.T. Henry. said

“They (students) walk away from Deerfield-Windsor with an outstanding college preparatory education, which prepares them for any college, anywhere,” he said, “and it also allows them to have an infinite choice of occupation (because of the curriculum and work ethic).”

Students are nominated for the scholarship. The middle school award is for three years and the high school award for three or four years, depending on the recipient’s grade level.

To date, the program has awarded a total of $1.5 million, Henry said.

For 2007-08, middle school tuition at Deerfield is $8,700 per year and high school tuition is $9,000 per year.

“It’s like winning the lottery,” Cindy Thompson and Kim Earnest, Bryce’s mom, said in unison Thursday afternoon while visiting the school’s media center.

Added Kim Earnest, “What parent wouldn’t want their child to have a great opportunity? It’s awesome.”

“She was dancing around,” Bryant said of his mother’s reaction to the award news.

For his part, Bryant — a participant in the Duke (University) Talent Identification Program and a staff member of the Lake Park Elementary School newspaper and newscast — said he’s excited and surprised, and looks to new sports opportunities, making new friends and meeting up with buddies who already attend Deerfield-Windsor.

And although he’s serious about the academics, Bryant admitted that one of the things he’s most looking forward to at Deerfield are its college-cafeteria style lunches.

Bryce said she’s “really excited a bout the arts class and the cross country and swim team.”

Bryce, who has two younger siblings, also is the daughter of Mike Earnest. Bryant, who has one younger sibling, also is the son of Lin Thompson.

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