Nolan Reitz

Powell High School senior Nolan Reitz will be attending the University of Wyoming without worrying about the price tag thanks to the Trustees’ Scholar Award.

The prestigious award is given to 100 Wyoming students each year. The selected students’ average GPA was 3.97 and the average ACT score was 32.

“It’s a huge weight off my mind, now I feel like I’m able to better focus on my education and having fun while I’m in college, and making friends and connections that can really help shape the rest of my life,” Reitz said.

When he arrives in the fall he will already be familiar with UW’s campus, having attended summer camps there.

During his summer in Laramie, Reitz first learned about the trustees scholarship as an incoming junior.

“At that point, I kind of realized, ‘Hey, I may actually have a decent shot for this.’ So I made sure I went through all the steps and got a good ACT score, and made sure I applied by their deadline for that and just kind of set myself up in that way,” Reitz said.

He plans to major in computer engineering and he’s already had the chance to meet some of the professors — this helped him get a feel for the program, he said. Reitz discovered computer engineering was something he really enjoyed when he joined the Powell High School robotics club last year, he said. 

“I just like being able to take and manipulate computers and electronics and kind of bring them into the physical world … you get to make little robots and stuff and use sensors to manipulate them to impact their decision and kind of bridge the gap between the physical and digital world. And that’s always really appealed to me,” Reitz said.

Alongside Reitz, Kik Hayano, Seeger Wormald and Abigail LeBlanc were also offered the opportunity to attend UW on a full ride via the trustees scholarship.

The Tribune is publishing stories on all four scholars.