Late last month, all across the state of Kentucky, some of the best and brightest high school students graduated from the Governor Scholars Program.

For those who do not know, the Governor's Scholar Program (GSP) is:

"...a summer residential program for outstanding high school students in Kentucky who are rising seniors. The Program originated in 1983 as a result of Kentucky leaders’ concern that the state’s “best and brightest” were leaving the Commonwealth to pursue educational and career opportunities elsewhere without fully understanding the potential of their talents at home. Students who are selected attend the Program without charge. In the spirit of partnership, the Office of the Governor, the Kentucky State Legislature, and private enterprise come together to provide the financial support for the Program."

GSP prides itself on picking students with a diverse resume. When applying, students do not only put their ACT/SAT scores, but a broad and detailed list of community service, leadership positions, and honors received. Students selected for this program come from various backgrounds, but one thing that is promised to all of them is a great education inside their home state of Kentucky.

However, recently—and by recently I literally mean last week—the state's flagship University of Kentucky backed out on that promise.

GSP alumni were previously guaranteed a full-tuition scholarship if they achieved a 28 on the ACT (which is well above the national average of a 20.8). The change, however, now expects GSP'ers to score a 31 on the ACT before they can get this full tuition scholarship as a reward for being named a Governor's Scholar. Students who score under a 31 are awarded a Provost Scholarship, which totals to 1,500 dollars per year. Just for reference, the cost of in-state attendance at UK is close to $27,000.

While a few view this as a step toward the university's prestige and attest to rising test scores, most are furious.

While I personally love the University of Kentucky, the only talk about 3 points I enjoy is in basketball, and this change has negatively impacted too many of Kentucky's finest students.

First of all, time and time again, I would like to reiterate the mantra that a test score does NOT solely prove intelligence, and as a campus that prides itself on diversity, by raising the test score requirement you are now appearing to search for an even more cookie cutter applicant.

There is no denying that the atmosphere and fiscal standing one grows up in has an effect in shaping their future. Speaking from a socio-economic standpoint, those who are able to buy ACT prep books and pay to take the test multiple times are the ones who are more likely to dominate the 31+ range. This means that most students scoring in the 97th percentile and above are going to be students who aren't necessarily concerned with getting a scholarship—in fact, they are probably those students who are searching to study out of state at schools academically ranked much higher than any Kentucky university can provide.

Not only that, but students are plagued with geographical limitations as well. For example, students from my hometown in Eastern Kentucky and towns of the like do not have ready access to the high-quality standardized test preparation that our metropolitan counterparts do. This becomes a question not of intelligence, but of accessibility and availability of the means by which students can condition themselves for these standardized tests.

This brings up an entirely new dilemma: Out of the scholars who are granted this scholarship how many will call Eastern Kentucky home? These students are already climbing an uphill battle against stigmas. Many are ravaged by poverty and saw attending the University of Kentucky as their escape, their chance for social and economic mobility.

But these changes have brought up yet another hurdle for these students to pass, pushing them further and further into staying a part of the vicious cycle.

Let's rewind back to the purpose of the Governor Scholars Program:

"The Program originated in 1983 as a result of Kentucky leaders’ concern that the state’s 'best and brightest' were leaving the Commonwealth to pursue educational and career opportunities elsewhere without fully understanding the potential of their talents at home..."

By increasing the score requirement, you are now reaching out predominantly to those students who statistically speaking do not need your assistance, and furthermore, those students who have no interest in staying in Kentucky. Keeping the requirement at a score of 28 allows the percentile to be broadened to a more diverse range of backgrounds.

A 28, while still an exceptional score, is only in the 90% percentile. For those students being admitted into GSP, the average ACT score is a 27. Increasing a score by 1 point is a doable task, especially when given a full year to try, which leads me to my next point of how little notice the 2015 scholars were given of the change.

These students worked hard to be accepted into a prestigious program like GSP and should be rewarded, not penalized. By raising the requirement three points, those in charge are failing to realize that some people are just better test takers than others and to raise the requirement with this lack of notice is obscene.

Basically, you're asking students to gain 12 additional sub-category points to raise a composite score by three—all of which has to be done prior to the scholarship deadline in January. This gives students about 3-4 possible test dates to raise their score, assuming that a student can afford and schedule each of those dates.

What most fail to realize is that these are seniors in high school and curriculum taught in the first semester will not be anything drastically new, meaning that it will more than likely not help in raising their scores. Aside from the stress of having to retake the tests comes the burden of paying for these exams. On average, to take the ACT, one has to pay around $40.00, and though that may not seem too bad on its own, when multiplied by three or four, it can turn into quite a sum of cash—cash that is being wasted on trying to achieve an unnecessarily high standard.

Furthermore, for students who still want to apply to the University of Kentucky without a score of a 31, the next scholarship down (besides the FEW others which are extremely competitive) is the Provost scholarship, which is $1,500 per year—a four-year total of $6,000, which doesn't even equate to one year of in-state tuition at UK.

In fact, resident tuition is almost twice that per year.

While I can understand some of the reasoning behind this decision, the lack of transparency regarding the decision has caused many people who felt sure of their college choice to completely question their decisions and reevaluate everything.

While browsing through social media to find opinions on the change, a statement made by Mel Coffee—a staff member for the Governor's Scholars Program-—caught my eye.

So many valid points here.

This is someone who clearly understand the side-effects that this change will cause. I also would like to point out that in applying to GSP, standardized test scores are not the largest factor on the application. This is to ensure that all the merits of a student are assessed rather than just their ability to take an exam. Scholars are more than their test scores. They are involved, they are achieving, and they are unique.

By herding the few together that have a certain test score, we are ignoring the qualities that define a Governor's Scholar; their whole ability to cultivate community and culture for their future campuses. Scholars are more than their intelligence. They are leadership skills, initiative and passions—all of which can't be evaluated by a Scantron machine.

In addition, no other university in the state has raised its GSP scholarship requirements. While I understand that finances are a tricky thing to handle, I cannot wrap my mind around the logic of spending millions of dollars on working toward a campus strategic plan if you won't have high caliber students to inhabit it.

This requirement change will not only hurt our enrollment numbers, but students who are going to have to put in the effort to get higher scores may not even apply to the university, instead opting for an out-of-state choice. This will drastically hurt the well-being of our state.

In the few days since the decision was made public, a petition on Change.org has been drafted. Within the first day the petition had over 3,000 signatures in favor of the reversion. For those interested in signing the petition, it was about 1,000 signatures short of the 5,000 goal at the time of writing.

After reading this article, you may be surprised to hear that I do not have the honor of being able to call myself a Kentucky Governor's Scholar, but I know the value of the program and the incredible students it creates by not only being a product of Kentucky public schools, but also a Kentucky public university—in fact, the Kentucky public university.

I can see the detriment that it will cause our communities, our school, and our state's future. I urge you to not only sign this petition but get into contact with your legislators, for it shows that not only those affected are willing to stand up, but the families, friends, and communities will stand by GSP as well.

We WILL truly make a difference. Sign the petition here.

High schools all across the state portray the University of Kentucky as the finest educational opportunity the state has to offer, and I think it can often go unsaid how deeply devoted most Kentuckians are to UK.

This school is the state's heart and soul.

We've promised to bleed blue, UK, so please give those who are eager to walk (as a student) through the doors of the new Academic Science Center, Whitehall Classroom Building, and Commonwealth Stadium a fair chance.

Repeal this initiative.

If the Governor has given his seal of approval for these students as being the "best and brightest," why can't the Commonwealth's flagship land-grant University do the same?