Two former Centralia Grade School students will be honored with the Reach for the Stars award during Centralia Junior High Graduation on Monday night.  They are Verle Besant and Dr. Clara Rouse. 

Besant is a 1949 graduate of Schiller School, who later graduated from Centralia Township High School and the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and insurance.  He then went on to a nearly 50-year-long career in the insurance business culminating in his ownership of what is now the Insurance Partnership in Centralia. 

Rouse is a graduate of Lincoln Grade School as well as Centralia Township High School and Kaskaskia Junior College before earning a bachelor and masters degrees as well as a PHD.  She then went on to become a teacher and principal in the Centralia Grade School system before leaving in 1996 to become assistance superintendent of the Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto, California. 

Graduation ceremonies will be at 7:30 Monday night at Centralia Junior High.