Winnfield’s Rotary Club hosted two of its scholarship recipients for lunch on June 1, 2022. Our Rotary club awards scholarships to three graduating seniors annually, the Thomas Harrel and the Lawrence I. White scholarships to students attending four-year colleges or universities and the Don Purser scholarship to a student attending the Huey P. Long campus of Central Louisiana Technical and Community College.
Lucas Homan, a 2022 graduate of Winnfield Senior High School and the son of Sam and Dawn Homan, is this year’s recipient of Rotary’s Thomas Harrel scholarship. Lucas’s mother Dawn was a guest at the Rotary luncheon meeting as well. Lucas will attend Northwestern State University in the fall and plans to study criminal justice. His career goal, inspired by his love of the outdoors, is to put his knowledge of criminal justice to use by becoming a game warden. “The award of the Rotary Scholarship changed my life, he says, “now I can focus on my education without worrying about anything else.”
Lucas’s successful journey through high school has not been without challenges, as he has cystic fibrosis, a progressive genetic disease that causes long-lasting lung infections and limits the ability to breathe over time. This causes clogging of his airways and frequent lung infections, inflammation, and even respiratory failure. It can also cause malnutrition and liver disease. Lucas told Rotarians he spent a lot of time in the hospital in his younger years, and it seemed as if he was in the hospital ALL the time when he was in seventh and eighth grades. Miraculously, three or four years ago, a new drug was released that dramatically improved his condition and he has not required hospitalization since he was in tenth grade. Now he looks forward to attending college and having a fulfilling career and appreciates Rotary for its help with the award of its scholarship.
Rotary’s Lawrence I. White scholarship was awarded to Chandler Poisso, also a member of the WSHS class of 2022 and the daughter of Ryan and Kim Poisso. In addition to making excellent grades during high school, Chandler was elected to the Student Council, where she served as secretary and reporter. She is a member of the National Honor Society and the local Beta Club, FBLA, in which she went to the state competition, and of FFA. Chandler also served as a Tiger mentor, a group of students who assisted incoming freshmen with information and guidance about the high school.
Chandler plans to major in kinesiology at ULM in the fall. She aspires to become a physical therapist and ultimately obtain a doctorate in physical therapy. She became interested in the field because her brother needed surgery on both shoulders and had to undergo physical therapy during his recovery.
Besides her many extracurricular activities in high school, Chandler worked at Social Coffee House during high school and after, and bakes cakes to order for special occasions. “Just text my mom,” she says to anyone who needs a special cake. And she delivers!
Coincidentally, Chandler and Lucas are were born on the same day—they are birthday twins.
After a lively question and answer session, the meeting was adjourned as customary with the Rotary motto, “Service above self!”
Pictured above from left: Kim Poisso, Chandler Poisso, Lucas Homan, Dawn Homan
