By MATT PIKE
The Cotillion for Achievement Program is celebrating its 40th year of providing scholarship money and life changing opportunities to students in Buchanan and Andrew counties
For the past 40 years, senior students, from Buchanan and Andrew County High schools, complete a written application and an essay. Past president of the Cotillion, and the current Corresponding Secretary, Mary Beth Revels says a panel of judges review the applications blindly.
"And eight young men and eight young women are chosen each year to participate in these leadership seminars," Mary Beth says on the KFEQmunnity show. "And also get a scholarship, so everyone who participates who gets a scholarship, and one outstanding male and one outstanding female get a $2,000 scholarship, where all the other partipants who are also wonderful get a $1,000 scholarship."
Leadership activities include interviewing skills, etiquette, dress for success, and waltz lessons. A Benton alum, and current student at Missouri Western State University, Cole Kelley earned the Finalists of Distinction during last year's Cotillion.
Kelley says while he was surprised to be a Finalist of Distinction, going through Cotillion was a great experience that taught him a lot.
"We learned how to eat with proper etiqutte, I had never done anything like that before and I can say its been less than a year since we did that and I've already used that in real world scenarios," Kelley explains. "Small things like that, we learned dancing etiquette, how to dance, how to waltz, a lot of stuff that if you're a young kid, 17 years old, 18 years old, senior in high school, if you didn't have an opportunity like this I would not have encountered any of that stuff if it wasn't for Cotillion."
And while ballroom dancing and etiquette is part of the experience, there are other life changing experiences such as learning about people from other countries.
"We met a lot of different people from a lot of different countries, we got to have one on one conversations with people from the Phillipines, people from Cuba, from Mexico, a refugee from Syria" Kelley says. "And getting their first hand experiences told to us really gives light on to what life is like what we have outside of here."
Applications for this year's Cotillion program are due by October 16th, 2026. The Cotillion Scholarship Ball will be held at the St. Joseph Country Club on February 20th, 2027. Following dinner, each student will be introduced and presented with a $1000 college scholarship. The two Finalists of Distinction will also be announced.
Interview
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