State honor

Brainerd resident Julie Jo Larson, an honor student at Central Lakes
College, has been recognized by state organizations with scholarships she said qualified
students shouldn’t overlook for themselves. “It
is my hope that I can inspire more students to take the time and fill out the
scholarship applications,” she said. “There is money out there for students who
are willing to try.” Larson was recently named to the 2011-12 All-Minnesota
Academic Team.

            Larson, who will earn her
Honors Associate in Arts degree from CLC in May, is president of CLC’s Upsilon
Omega chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa national honor society for two-year
colleges.

            A Social Work major who
plans to attend the College of St. Scholastica, she also has been named a
recipient of the $1,000 Minnesota TRiO Scholarship. TRiO is a student support
service advancing equal educational opportunity and promoting diversity in America’s
post-secondary institutions.

            Larson has also received
the following scholarships while at CLC:

            2012 Minnesota State
College Student Leadership

            2012 Joseph Plut
Literature

2011, 2012 Presidential

            2012 August T. Boberg

            2011 American Association
of University Women

             Larson, 47, carries a 4.0 grade point average.
She is an active tutor of other CLC students who are enrolled in six different course
areas. She served on the Governor’s Economic Forum panel during an event the
Brainerd campus. She organized two study groups for students, mentored a
student with autism, and has been a volunteer for the Center for Lifelong
Learning at CLC.

            In the fall of 2010 she
became a charter member of the new Honors AA degree cohort at CLC, one few
non-traditional students among the contingent of qualifiers.

Until enrolling at CLC, the New Ulm native hadn’t
been a college student for more than 20 years, having been named Student of the
Year at Mankato Technical Institute in 1987.