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Business helps Mason senior earn $40K scholarship

By Eric Schwartzberg

Staff Writer

Thursday, March 26, 2009

For Kristin Wood, scarlet and gray means a lot of green.

The 18-year-old Mason High School senior founded her Personalized Script Ohio business as a junior in early 2008, allowing Buckeye fans a chance to have the Ohio State University Marching Band spell any name.

Wood applied for a McKelvey Foundation Entrepreneurial Scholarship during winter break and received word March 20, that she was one of 67 people selected from more than 2,000 applicants to receive a $40,000 scholarship.

"I'm very happy to have received the scholarship," she said. "It's just another step toward feeling like a true entrepreneur."

The idea for Personalized Script Ohio came to Wood while watching an OSU football game with her family.

"We were talking about how cool it would be if people could spell their last names out there," she said. "I thought that it would be a very unique gift that I was sure a lot of people would want to buy, so I took a chance and started a Web site."

That site — www.great

collegegifts.com — has netted the business more than 8,000 Buckeye fans in a little more than a year.

Wood said orders are processed twice a week and usually arrive a week or two later.

She said she had no idea the business would be a hit, let alone earn her an award that would subsidize her college education. "It's very overwhelming because you think that something's not going to be so successful ... but once it does work, it's a great feeling," she said.

Created by the late Andrew J. McKelvey, founder of Monster.com, the entrepreneurial scholarship may be used at any U.S. college.

Wood said she is deciding whether to use the money at OSU, Miami University, Xavier University or University of Dayton.

"I'm going to take a lot of different classes and see what interests me the most and hopefully be able to pick a major out of that if I don't feel that business is right for me — but I'm pretty sure I'm headed that way," she said.

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