4/14/98

ATHENS, Ohio -- Rachael L. Molnar of Amherst Steel High School, Lorain, Ohio, has been awarded the 1998-99 Beth K. Stocker-Manasseh Cutler Scholars Award, a four-year, undergraduate scholarship paying tuition, room and board at Ohio University.

The Manasseh Cutler Scholars Program, modeled on Oxford University's Rhodes Scholars program for graduate students, emphasizes development of leadership potential. The award includes a stipend to cover structured summer internships and study abroad.

Molnar, the daughter of Michael and Kristine Molnar of Lorain, is a senior at Amherst Steel High School and one of 14 Cutler Scholars who will attend classes on the Athens campus this fall. She is a co-captain of both the cross-country and track teams, a camp adviser to the yearbook staff and a member of the debate team, ski club and National Honor Society.

To be considered for the Beth K. Stocker-Manasseh Cutler Scholars Award, a student must be a student at a secondary school in Lorain county and nominated by his or her high school. The nominees are first reviewed by an Area Selection Committee of alumni and friends of Ohio University. Two finalists are then interviewed on the Athens campus by the Cutler Scholars Selection Committee.

"To be considered a Cutler Scholar, one should be a serious student of physical vigor who exhibits a moral strength of character that is translated into scholastic pursuits and into community involvement," says Charles J. Ping, Ohio president emeritus and executive director of the Manasseh Cutler Scholars Program.

A resident of Oberlin in Lorain County, Stocker established the annual scholarship to benefit high school students in Lorain County, awarding the first scholarship in 1996. A graduate of Ohio University and president of the Stocker Foundation of Lorain, Stocker and her husband, the late Paul Stocker, established in 1985 the C. Paul and Beth K. Stocker Engineering and Technology Center at Ohio University's Russ College of Engineering and Technology.