Four area high school students received Herb Kohl Educational Foundation scholarships.

Rachael Demaree of Platteville High School and Grace Friederick of Potosi High School received $1,000 Excellence Scholarships. Joshua Beck of Platteville and Kyle Van Bogaert of Belmont received $1,000 Initiative Scholarships.

The students will be honored at a luncheon at Parker High School in Janesville April 5.

Excellence Scholarship recipients have demonstrated excellence in the academic arena and high motivation to achieve, have displayed a broad range of activity and leadership outside the academic setting, and have shown strong promise for succeeding in college and beyond. Initiative Scholarship recipients, chosen by their schools, have demonstrated exceptional initiative in the classroom and have shown strong promise for succeeding in college and beyond, but have not yet received other academic-based scholarships.

In addition to the 187 scholarship recipients, 100 teachers and their schools were chosen for Fellowships based on the teachers’ superior ability to inspire a love of learning in their students, their ability to motivate others, and for their leadership and service within and outside the classroom.

Excellence Scholarship and Fellowship recipients are selected by a statewide committee composed of civic leaders, and representatives of education-related associations and the program’s co-sponsors: The Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Wisconsin Council of Religious and Independent Schools, and regional Cooperative Educational Service Agencies.

The Kohl Foundation Scholarship and Fellowship program was established by former U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl in 1990. To date the foundation has awarded $8.6 million to Wisconsin educators, students and schools.