For the Miami Valley Today

TROY — In Kellen Miller’s mind, it wasn’t official until it was Twitter official.

“When I told him he had won a scholarship, he was like, ‘What?’ He didn’t remember me signing him up,” said Liz Miller, Kellen’s mother. “I told him when he got vaccinated, I had signed him up to get a $10,000 scholarship, but I don’t think he believed me. So I had to get on Twitter and show him he had won.”

On Thursday afternoon, Troy High School sophomore Kellen Miller was awarded a $10,000 college scholarship through the Ohio Department of Health and Ohio Lottery’s Vax-2-School program.

According to the Ohio Department of Health, “Ohio Vax-2-School is a public outreach campaign consisting of a series of statewide drawings to increase awareness of the availability and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and provide incentives to younger Ohioans to get a COVID-19 vaccination.”

Miller, the son of Liz and Troy High School teacher Tim Miller, became the second THS student in 48 hours to win one of the $10,000 scholarships. On Tuesday, THS and Upper Valley Career Center junior Jonathan Lewis also won a scholarship.

“It’s pretty weird to think two kids from Troy both won scholarships,” Liz Miller said. “What are the odds? We thought it was never going to happen. When we heard one Troy student had won a scholarship, we figured our odds had gone out the window.”

Of course, the decision to get their son vaccinated was never about winning a scholarship, Miller said. She said the hope is getting him vaccinated will help keep him in school and involved in sports. Kellen plays football and basketball for the Trojans.

“We wanted to keep him in the classroom, and we wanted to keep him playing sports,” Liz said.

The Millers do plan on putting the scholarship money to good use once Kellen graduates in two years.

“He does plan on continuing his education after high school,” Liz said. “He wants to go to college and study physical therapy.”