LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Fern Creek High School was recently given the biggest donation it has ever received, one that school administrators believe will help continue a rich tradition.
"It's a game-changer," said Beau Baker, dean of the Ivy Plus Academy.
The academy, which helps get high-achieving students into the nation's top colleges, has made a Fern Creek a destination school for a lot of students. As a result, GPAs and ACT scores are not the only numbers Baker has on his radar.
"We are completely self-generated when it comes to funding," he said. "A lot of students will come here with Ivy Plus in mind."
That's why Baker is so excited about the donation: $50,000 from an anonymous donor. And so is the school's principal, Dr. Rebecca Nicolas.
"I was incredibly excited," she said. "Like, 'Are you serious? Are you lying?'"
Joshua Smith, a senior at Fern Creek, lettered in four sports, but he said it was academics that brought him there.
"A lot of other high schools in the Louisville area do not have this program," Smith said of the Ivy Plus Academy. "It's unique, if you will, and that's what pushed me to come here."
The walls of Baker's classroom are lined with the banners of schools that have offered more than $70 million in scholarships to Ivy Plus students, and school administrators believe the donation will continue the tradition.
"This is going to change the trajectory of not just these students' lives," he said. "It's going to change the trajectory of their family tree of moving to the future.
"I will be able to have kids apply to any school they want to give it a shot. It's going to help with travel. We take kids to these colleges."
Baker said he's proud of the millions in scholarships his students have earned but said there are two more statistics that prove the donation is money well spent.
"That data that I track that I am proudest of is our retention rate," he said. "What percentage of our students stay at the school they originally started at and what's the percentage that graduate in four years, and those two numbers are both over 80%."
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