Two recent Putnam County High School (PCHS) graduates were presented with scholarship checks last Friday from Dr. Willie Oliver at his Most Valuable Smiles (MVS) dentistry practice on Eatonton’s downtown square.
Oliver, a 2001 PCHS grad himself, said he wanted to help high school students who he hopes might someday return to Putnam County to serve local citizens, just as he did by opening his practice here almost exactly one year ago.
“What I found myself doing is I left, but then I was taking care of the health of everyone else at other places when my own town was suffering,” he explained. “I saw the need to come back here, so that's what I did. So now, I want to help these students, but hopefully encourage the return of young, native people of Eatonton to come back and just promote the health and wellness of people here.”
Oliver also stressed that the MVS scholarships were not intended to promote the field of dentistry.
“It’s to get more people involved and to at least get more young people thinking in the direction of healthcare in general,” he said.
Jaida Jackson, 17, and 18-year-old Jenna McDerment each received a $500 scholarship check from MVS, plus a “goodie” box filled with personal care items, including a vase with cut flowers. For Jaida, it represented one of nine scholarship awards she’s received and marked one of three for Jenna.
Both young women completed dual-enrollment classes at PCHS in order to get a head start on their college studies and eventual careers.
Jaida said she plans to major in chemistry and complete her undergraduate degree over three years at Augusta University before advancing to three more years of pharmacy school at the University of Georgia, in Athens. She also plans to minor in business while eyeing a possible career in pharmaceutical sales.
Jenna, meanwhile, will attend Central Georgia Technical College in Macon, where she will study radiology to eventually become certified as an X-ray and CT-scan technician. She said she hopes to someday work at Putnam General Hospital.
“I didn't really know what I wanted to do until I went into the healthcare classes at Putnam. They really helped me decide what I wanted to do,” Jenna said. “And it was actually Melissa Harvey that got me to see that helping people is what I really wanted to do.”
Part of the MVS scholarship application process required writing an essay explaining how each applicant might benefit Eatonton and Putnam County in the future.
“I mostly wrote about how we just need to see more female pharmacists and doctors and people like that in Eatonton, so that way more people in the Putnam school system might want to go into that, too,” Jaida said.
Oliver said he was impressed by the quality of submissions from all scholarship candidates and hopes even more will apply next year.
“I definitely want it to grow, want it to get bigger,” he said. “I want to offer more incentives to the scholarship as well, but this was our first year, so it turned out perfect for that. But I do think next year we will have a lot more going on.”