Many high school seniors have picked their colleges and are getting ready to head off to school in a few months.

Free State High senior Sarah Stern just got another 40,000 reasons to pursue her education at Kansas University. Stern won a scholarship for high school senior business owners from the McKelvey Foundation.

“I thought there wasn’t going to be many seniors across the United States who owned a business,” Stern said. She competed against 900 other young entrepreneurs for the grand prize. “With scholarships, it’s really important to focus on something that you can really fit in.”

Sarah Stern Photography has been in business about three years. And Stern gives back to the community. She’s a member of the Roger Hill Volunteer Youth Corps and is president of Free State High’s Key Club.

“Sarah is an outstanding person,” said Free State High principal Ed West. “Just multi-talented … obviously highly talented in the fine arts area, especially in the area of photography.”

Stern isn’t exactly sure what she wants to study in college — both psychology and marketing are high on her list — but she does know she’ll graduate practically debt-free.

“(That’s) a huge deal to me because traveling is really important to me,” said Stern, who has a 4.0 grade-point average. “I won’t be tied to a job after I graduate … that I don’t love because I’m trying to pay off these loans that I owe.”