Four Beaufort County soon-to-be graduates were honored for their achievements on Wednesday night as recipients of scholarships from the Optimist Club of Beaufort County.

Devon Van Cura, Sarah Jennings, Harley Hudson and Megan Corey, who are all seniors at Washington High School, were recognized for receiving scholarships.

Hudson received the Linley Gibbs Scholarship, Van Cura and Jennings both received Youth Appreciation Awards and Corey received the Earl Mitchell Memorial Scholarship.

Gibbs is a long-time member who has donated hundreds of hours of his time to children in the community through the club and other organizations, said Patty Peebles, president of the club. Mitchell was a long-time member who raised a lot of money for the club and supported the youth in the community.

Two of the recipients plan to go to college in-state and two plan to go to colleges out of state: Van Cura will attend Penn State and pursue a degree in biomedical engineering; Jennings plans to study international relations or political science at the University of Virginia; Hudson will attend Beaufort County Community College to start studies in physical therapy; and Corey is N.C. State-bound, planning to study biology and go to medical school to work in pediatric oncology.

“It feels good knowing the work I have been putting in is being given back in some way, and that I will still be able to give to other people,” Hudson said.

“This scholarship means a lot because I have decided to go to school out-of-state, so the tuition is a lot more than we were really expecting,” Jennings said. “It is really nice to get support from the community so I can go to the school I want to go to.”

Peebles said the organization strives to help the children in the community. It gives scholarships, sponsors sports teams, runs a local soccer program and is involved with other youth programs and activities.

“Everything we do is for the children in Beaufort County,” Peebles said.

The club looks at several different things when selecting its scholarship recipients including community service, accomplishments, extracurricular activities and grade-point average, Peebles said. Recipients must have at least a 2.5 GPA and have played a sport at some point in their lives. The applicants review the club’s creed and are required to write a personal essay describing how they can apply that to their lives as well as how they apply those principles in their day to day lives.

Peebles said the scholarship applicants are reviewed by people who are not local and don’t know the students personally.