Dalton Gregory, son of Junior and Kathleen Gregory, has been selected out of more than 2,000 applicants to be a part of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Young Scholars Program.

The program is designed to offer a student a more personalized educational support.

“They are going to mentor him for four years, take him anywhere he wants to go in the summer, things like that,” Junior Gregory said.

Junior Gregory said they have visited a couple of different high schools, some private and some public.

According to Gregory, Dalton can choose to attend a private school with all expenses paid for through the scholars program for his high school years.

The process to be selected to the scholars program was more than a year long.

“He had to write essays and do interviews,” Junior Gregory said. “Every time we would get an e-mail saying he was on to the next phase.”

Dalton was one of 70 who were selected out of the 2,000 applicants who applied throughout the nation.

“I’m kind of surprised and excited,” Dalton said. “It took a lot of work.”

Junior Gregory said 87 percent of the students who participate in the program get offered full scholarships to some of the top schools in the nation.

“Most take scholarships to places like Harvard, Yale, Duke … the rest choose to stay at home and go to college like UK and places like that,” Junior Gregory said.

Dalton said he is looking forward to the experience and what all it has to offer.

“I’m excited about getting to see different places,” Dalton said. “My junior and senior years I could go to different countries. This summer I will probably get to go to places closer to home, but I could get to go to Baltimore and Washington.”

One school Dalton looked at this year was a school called The Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee.

“It was really cool,” Dalton said. “It was like a miniature college.”

Dalton doesn’t have to attend another school to remain in the scholars program. If he chooses, he can remain here at Clinton County and attend the high school. Kathleen is hoping if he does decide to continue his education in Clinton County, the school will offer more higher level classes, not just for Dalton, but for other students as well.

“The reason we visited Webb was because they had two students in their program already,” Kathleen said.

Patrick Wu, Dalton’s academic advisor for the program, told Kathleen if Dalton chooses to stay here, he is hoping he will be the driving force for the high school to get a more challenging program.

“Patrick wants it to be his decision,” Junior said.

“It’s up to Dalton because he has to be happy,” Kathleen said. “We hope he will help with getting the high school to offer more challenging classes. I know they offer some already … we are just hoping they will expand it.”

One of the main objectives of the program is to individualize a learning plan. The program will maximize academic abilities, cultivate a service mind set, explore interests and develop passions and build life skills.

“He participated in the Duke T.I.P. last year as a seventh grader and his score had to be in the 95 percentile to be invited,” Kathlene Gregory said. “He also had to take the ACT and based on the ACT he was recognized at Western Kentucky University. From that he started getting stuff in the mail from programs and we just thought we would apply. We never dreamed it would have gone this far.”