{"id":195106,"date":"2026-05-17T19:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T19:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/195106\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T19:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T19:03:20","slug":"mid-valley-senior-receives-scholarship-in-honor-of-americas-250th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/195106\/","title":{"rendered":"Mid Valley senior receives scholarship in honor of America’s 250th anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

From a young age, Anthony Betti has been involved in his community.<\/p>\n

It began when his father, Gregg Betti first ran for Jessup Borough Council and he helped his father during his campaign in 2017. It led to the now 18-year old senior at Mid Valley Secondary Center to become active at Queen of Angels Parish, St. Ubaldo Society and Keystone Chapter UNICO National, and being elected himself last year as Judge of Elections for Throop Ward 4, in addition to his school activities that include cross country, track and field, National Honor Society and History Club.<\/p>\n

His service and school activities didn\u2019t go unnoticed, as he received the Semiquincentennial Scholarship, one of 25 students from around the state selected from 1,800 applicants and the only one from Lackawanna County, to receive it.<\/p>\n

The scholarship, put out by America250PA, commemorates America\u2019s 250th anniversary and honors the legacy of Pennsylvania\u2019s strong commitment to education, according to organization officials. It provides $10,000 to high school seniors who will attend a college or university in the state.<\/p>\n

Anthony applied for the scholarship earlier this year and learned he received it in March. Although he didn\u2019t expect he would receive it, Anthony said receiving the scholarship was an honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt honored to receive the scholarship and be recognized for my accomplishment at such a high level,\u201d he said at an interview last week at his Throop home. \u201cI was surprised because so many people applied. It was around 1,800 people applied for that scholarship. And me, out of 25 other people, received it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony\u2019s mother, Michallene Betti was equally surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we realized the magnitude of that, we were just like \u2018wow,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cYou don\u2019t know in advance, but when you find out when you get that letter and you get to see that kind of (scholarship), it\u2019s very impressive to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gov.<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro congratulate Mid Valley Secondary Center senior Anthony Betti during a reception in April for recipients of the Semiquincentennial Scholarship at the governor\u2019s mansion. (Submitted)\n<\/p>\n

\"Anthony<\/p>\n

Anthony Betti shows a scrapbook of autographed letters from various celebrities and politicians at his Throop home Thursday, May 14, 2026. (Christine Lee\/Staff Photo)\n<\/p>\n

\"Anthony<\/p>\n

Anthony Betti, right, poses for a photo with Gov. Josh Shapiro and First Lady Lori Shapiro during a reception at the governor\u2019s mansion for recipients of the Semiquincentennial Scholarship in April. (Submitted)\n<\/p>\n

\"Mid<\/p>\n

Mid Valley senior Anthony Betti, center, poses for a photograph with his parents Michallene and Gregg Betti in the backyard of his home in Throop Thursday, May 14, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 4<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro congratulate Mid Valley Secondary Center senior Anthony Betti during a reception in April for recipients of the Semiquincentennial Scholarship at the governor\u2019s mansion. (Submitted)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

He is most proud of his participation on the track and cross country teams because he is in better physical shape as a result of his participation. On Tuesday, he will oversee his first election as Judge of Elections, which he won in November through a write-in campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to it,\u201d Anthony said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be an interesting thing to learn about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michallene and Gregg Betti said their son had an interest in politics and world events from an early age, even writing letters to politicians and celebrities from around the world. The letters to politicians included questions on policies, while in his letters to celebrities, he talked about how much he admired a particular movie they appeared in.<\/p>\n

Anthony expected to only get scholarship money but wasn\u2019t expecting to attend a ceremony at the Governor\u2019s Residence in Harrisburg, where he met Gov. Josh Shapiro and First Lady Lori Shapiro, a meeting he described as \u201cpretty cool.\u201d He and the other scholarship winners were honored at the reception last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt pretty cool,\u201d Anthony said. \u201cIt felt like one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next year, he plans to study finance at Penn State in the 2 + 2 Degree Plan, under which he will study in his first two years at Penn State Scranton and finish his final years at the University Park campus. Anthony said he was inspired to study finance after his parents showed him their finances when he was 15 years old, as well as from movies like \u201cWall Street,\u201d \u201cTrading Places\u201d and \u201cThe Wolf of Wall Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

His parents are excited for him to receive the scholarship, which they said is a culmination of all the work he\u2019s done throughout his high school career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like it was like a nice honor to receive after really putting a lot of time and effort into your high school career and a lot of service activity,\u201d Michallene Betti said. \u201cWe\u2019re just so proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gregg Betti said his son\u2019s community involvement had just as much to do with him getting the scholarship as his academic career.<\/p>\n

Anthony is one of three students from Northeast Pennsylvania to receive the scholarship. The others are from Luzerne and Wyoming counties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From a young age, Anthony Betti has been involved in his community. It began when his father, Gregg…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[227,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,3104],"class_list":["post-195106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-education","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-throop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}