by David Snow
The Paducah Sun
February 12, 2022
Used with permission.
The PaxtonScholars program provides its six annual awardees with a laptop computer and up to $700 for each of the student’s last two years of high school to help them get into postsecondary education. Once there, they can receive up to $700 for their first year of postsecondary study.
It provides a step up for deserving students to find their career path, even if they are unsure what that path might be and where it might take them.
Paducah Tilghman High School junior Coy Booker finds himself in that position, as many high school students are. He said he felt honored to be a PaxtonScholars recipient.
“The scholarship money — whenever I do figure out where I’m going to go to college — will go toward tuition, and I already use my laptop every day,” he said.
“I have a few options right now. I’m looking at Western Kentucky. I’d like to go into physical therapy.”
Booker said his mother has worked in health care for more than 20 years and that he enjoyed helping people, inspiring him to follow a similar career path.
“I always go to the nursing homes with her,” he said of his mother. “It’s a good feeling.”
Booker is a member of the African American Leadership Club, and he would like to be a part of the now-forming Student Equity Council. He is in the Boys to Gentlemen organization and is a student representative for the Tornado Alley Council and is a PTHS Student Ambassador.
“Just before New Year’s Ms. (Shonda) Burrus told me about (the Student Equity Council), and we had an informational meeting,” Booker said. “I think it’s going to be a good group of students who want to bring change to a lot of the social problems that we see in the school and in the community as well.”
Booker works at Cheddar’s in Paducah, something he said he enjoys because “everybody’s like family there.”
Booker said he has a younger brother who he hopes is inspired to apply for the PaxtonScholars program when his turn comes.
“He just turned 10 in December,” he said. “He’s probably smarter than me. He’s good in everything he does, like the Gifted and Talented program and the academic team.”
Booker said that he was excited to fill out his application for PaxtonScholars.
“I put a lot of thought into it,” he said. “I put everything into it that I wanted to say because I knew it was a program that I would like to be a part of and I think represented me well.
“There are a lot of different scholarship programs out there that are designed to represent a specific group of people, and I think this one was for me.”
Booker is the son of LaDonna Atkins of Paducah and Lamar Booker of Louisville.
The PaxtonScholars program is provided through the McCracken County Community Career Endowment Inc. (MCCCE), which was established by former Paducah Sun publisher Fred Paxton and his wife, Peggy. Fred Paxton was also the chairman of the board and president of Paxton Media Group, which owns The Paducah Sun and WPSD Local 6.
The Paxtons put $1 million into the Community Foundation of West Kentucky to set up the MCCCE endowment for six annual scholarships presented to six high school juniors attending school in McCracken County.
“He had met with some community representatives — J.W. Cleary and B.A. Hamilton and others — to see how he could help the African-American community,” said Don Mitchell, the director of MCCCE Inc.
“He understood and realized real quick that when part of our community needs help, the whole community needs help. That was the emphasis that he put on it: for members of the African-American community to get better jobs, to get a better education and get better diversity in employment — just to raise the tide for everybody.”
That last statement references a saying that “A rising tide raises all ships,” meaning that improvements in one segment of a community benefits the whole community.
This year’s Class XII consists of six Paducah Tilghman High School juniors: Booker, Christopher Allen, Justice Campbell, Dasia Garland, Joemari Starks and Kauri Whitfield.
Follow David B. Snow on Twitter, @SunWithSnow, or on Facebook at facebook.com/sunwithsnow.