Oregon Public Broadcasting

A high school student in Philomath learned Thursday that she won a $20,000 scholarship, based not just on what she knows – but also who she knows.

Philomath senior, Kayleen Hannaway, is the first-ever winner of a national scholarship offered by the on-line college admissions site, zinch.com.

Hannaway’s 4.0 grade point average and extra curricular activities qualified her to be among 64 finalists nationwide. But then she had to win votes from people on-line in a “March Madness”-style tournament.

Hannaway says she had mixed feelings about the “popularity contest” aspect of the scholarship competition.

Kayleen Hannaway: “It was fun to network people and get to know more people through the process, but I felt that it wasn’t because of anything I’d done that I got the scholarship, but it was just getting to know more people.”

Hannaway credits members of her church, the United Church of God, who contacted other parishoners around the world, for helping her win what she said was an "exciting" competition.

Hannaway plans to use the scholarship at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, where she's been accepted for this fall.