Eastern Michigan University recently announced Francie Coolick-Garcia, a Willoughby resident, is a recipient of the 2025 Presidential Scholarship. According to EMU, Coolick-Garcia is one of 20 top-performing, first-year students selected for the award. Students selected for the EMU-specific scholars hip have an average ACT score of 28, SAT score of 1280 and a 4.11 GPA. Valued at up to $100,000, the EMU Presidential Scholarship covers full tuition, fees and four years of room, and board, according to EMU. Scholars are active, engaged members of The Honors College at EMU in addition to their academic college experience with further opportunities for critical thinking, community engagement and leadership. The recipients of the scholarship have used their skill sets to make an impact on their schools and communities, and are committed to helping those around them, said Dean of The Honors College Ann Eisenberg. “We are excited to have selected 20 young people who are eager to engage actively in the EMU community and to make it a better place through their involvement in student organizations, and research labs. We are honored to support them in this next stage of their education.” Eastern Michigan University recently announced Francie Coolick-Garcia, a Willoughby resident, as a recipient of the 2025 Presidential Scholarship. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)Eastern Michigan University recently announced Francie Coolick-Garcia, a Willoughby resident, as a recipient of the 2025 Presidential Scholarship. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)Eastern Michigan University recently announced Francie Coolick-Garcia, a Willoughby resident, as a recipient of the 2025 Presidential Scholarship. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)Eastern Michigan University recently announced Francie Coolick-Garcia, a Willoughby resident, as a recipient of the 2025 Presidential Scholarship. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)Eastern Michigan University recently announced Francie Coolick-Garcia, a Willoughby resident, as a recipient of the 2025 Presidential Scholarship. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)Show Caption1 of 5Eastern Michigan University recently announced Francie Coolick-Garcia, a Willoughby resident, as a recipient of the 2025 Presidential Scholarship. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)Expand Coolick-Garcia describes the application and interview process for the scholarship as “very intense.” “There’s a lot of people who apply and then you get a second call back to the interview process,” she said. “I was at dance, about to walk into ballet, and I saw a call from Michigan. I was like I need to take this and I was so excited, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I think there’s like 100 who interview.” Initially, Coolick-Garcia was waitlisted. “Decision day is May 1 and my birthday is May 2,” she said. “I was driving to school on my birthday and I got a call from Ypsilanti, the town Eastern Michigan is in, and I was in my friend’s car. The dean of The Honors College called and she’s like, ‘You’ve just been awarded.’ I was off the moon.” Coolick-Garcia didn’t hear of EMU or its Presidential Scholarship until she attended a dance combine in Youngstown. “You dance and they have all of these colleges there to watch and recruit,” she said. “Eastern Michigan was there and they were interested in me, and I had just heard about the school, so I was like this is a perfect opportunity. At that combine, they gave me a pass, so when I went, I was invited to a football game. “At that game, I got recruited to be on their dance team, so then from there, I pretty much knew I was going to go there,” she continued. “When I heard about the Presidential Scholarship, I was like if I can make this work, that would be so perfect.” As part of the application process for the scholarship, Coolick-Garcia recalls filling out paragraph-form questions in regard to what she has done for her community and any extracurriculars. “My mom’s also a writer, so she was very helpful checking all of my work,” Coolick-Garcia said. “I went up to the school about a year ago to get some tips. They have a session where you can learn about the scholarship. The dean gave me a lot of helpful tips about how to respond to the questions.” After multiple revisions, Coolick-Garcia submitted her application. When she received the call about having an interview, she and her mother sat at their kitchen table for hours practicing. “She would pretend to be the interviewer and I would go over and over and try to think of as many possible questions,” Coolick-Garcia said. “I think that really prepared me because when I got there, I wasn’t going into it blind.” Prior to coming to EMU and being recruited by the EMU Dance Team, Coolick-Garcia danced at the Fine Arts Association in Willoughby. She started dancing when she was 2 years old in a ballet and tap dancing class. “I’ve not stopped since,” Coolick-Garcia said. “Fine Arts Association — they’re my family. I miss it so much now, but the teachers and people there have given me so many opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to get. Dance is the whole reason I’m at Eastern, which is the reason I got the Presidential Scholarship. I was looking for that family environment and that supportive system, which I’ve been so used to.” In high school, Coolick-Garcia served as a Red Thread Ambassador and a project manager on a software team that developed a system to help the school organize transcripts. She’s also the founder of Francie’s Tiny Cakes where she sells 4.5-inch cakes to a local market. Coolick-Garcia loves living in Willoughby and while she recently came home from EMU for Christmas break, it’s not her first time back. “I dance at Fine Arts and my hip-hop teacher owns a studio in Independence,” she said. “They have a contemporary company and I was able to be on that last year for my senior year, and then we competed at World of Dance over the summer, so that was a huge opportunity. I was still on that team about a month into my college experience, so I’ve had to come back the first two or three Thursdays every week.” While she’s missed Willoughby, as her friends and family are still in town, transitioning to EMU has been a great experience, Coolick-Garcia said. “I have so many friends here, so I wanted to ease into being away,” she said. Coolick-Garcia’s anticipated graduation date is May of 2029. She’s majoring in management and hopes to be a project manager in the future. She would like to continue to pursue dance with a sports team. Additionally, she plans to pursue internships and work somewhere over the summer. Coolick-Garcia encourages other students they should always try and to go into something with a mindset of this is going to happen. She also encourages students to insert themselves into a school. “I was going into it like I’m not going to get this, but I tried and look what happened,” she said. ...read more read less