New York City billionaire has given two Turkeyfoot Seniors full four-year college scholarships.  Andy McKelvey, founder of the job search website monster.com through the McKelvy Foundation assisted by the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools(PARSS) identified ten of the poorest rural schools in Pennsylvania.  These ten districts each sent three senior representatives to Penn State’s main campus to be interviewed by a committee headed by McKelvey’s wife, Dena.  All candidates were to embody what Andy McKelvey defines as the “entrepreneurial spirit.” School activities and comunity service were also a determining factors.  As part of their interviewing process, each candidate was asked to write and essay giving their definition of the “entrepreneurial spirt” and to explain how they’ve shown it.  The McKelvey’s focused on content not necessarily on composition. The Foundation selected  Nathan Bungard and Kayla Schartiger to receive full four-year college scholarships. To ensure the students will make a successful transition from high school to college, the McKelveys decided to choose which schools they will attend their freshman year. The students could choose to attend Susquehanna, Shippensburg, Bucknell, Lockhave, Westminister, Dickinson, Mansfield, Seton Hill, Lehigh and Wilks. These universities were selected because each had programs designed to help rural students adjust to college life and academic rigors. After their freshman year, the students would be able to transfer to a college of their choice. This fall Bungard will be attending Lock Haven with a major in criminal justice and Schartiger will be heading off to Shippensburg to major in pre-med.  In addition to free room, board and tuition, each student will receive a laptop computer and a color printer.
     Who is Andy McKelvey? McKelvey is a 66-year old New York City entrepreneur ranked 124th on Forbes’ 400 U.S. richest list.  He shows a net worth of $2.1 billion. His business successes have come in the marketing, advertising and job recruitment arenas.  He is majority shareholder of TMP Worldwide, a publicly New York City based job placement and marketing firm, and he owns monster.com the world’s biggest internet job site.