News Photo by Julie Goldberg From left to right, Alpena High School students Danielle Schackman, Joshua Nowicki, and Hannah Burger are seen with certificates showing they received full-tuition scholarships from Lake Superior State University.

ALPENA — Three Alpena High School students are feeling less stress before they start their college careers.

Danielle Schackman, Joshua Nowicki, and Hannah Burger each received full-tuition scholarships to Lake Superior State University. Schackman and Nowicki received the LSSU Presidential Scholarship, while Burger received the Top 10% Scholarship.

The scholarships are full-tuition beginning with the 2020-21 academic year and renewable for three additional years. The students have to enroll full-time and live on campus.

“It feels really good because it’s a lot less stress on you,” Burger said Thursday.

Schackman said the scholarship takes a weight off her shoulders, because it gets rid of future student debt. She said knowing she won’t have debt in the future opens so many doors.

“Going into this, I didn’t think I was going to go to college for the next four years because I didn’t want to take on the debt,” Nowicki said. “I’m grateful and honored.”

Alpena High Principal Tom Berriman said LSSU reached out to Alpena High because it wants to expand its reach to future students.

“I knew we had great students here and these three are examples of the type of kids we have,” Berriman said. “The goal of our school is to give kids an opportunity to achieve their dreams and be what they want to be.”

The students are ready to travel to Sault Ste. Marie and start college.

“All your life, you practice saving your money,” Schackman said, because you are trying to save it for college. “And it’s full-tuition. There’s still a little bit of payment for room and board, but it’s still so much.”

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.