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Las Casas Scholarship Competitors Performing For A Share Of $100,000 This Sunday

It’s not "American Idol," but there’s a fierce competition going on Sunday night.  It’s a talent competition limited to regional high school students.  

"This year we started off with 140 applicants," said Kevin Parman, the president of the Las Casas board, the organization putting on the competition.

“And those applications came in from 54 different schools," he said. "That’s very exciting, to see that there’s not just one concentration in the city that’s participating in this.”

I asked how many students made the final cut.

“We have five finalists in each of four categories: acting, duet acting, singing and dance," Parman said.

The competition doesn’t just end on Sunday night with a winner, though.

"This year we’re going to send two kids to New York and they’re going to spend a week there training with Broadway professionals, and at the end of that, they’ll put on a show, which is also a competition," Parman said. "There are incredible prizes and the show takes place on a Broadway stage."

That’s not all: There is also scholarship money.

“This year we’re giving ot$100,000 that we raised, and we’re going to be giving that in the form of college scholarships to these students on Sunday,” Parman said.

Scholarships are awarded to every finalist competing on Sunday, from $1,500 to $15,000.

"It’s hard for me to explain to people how exciting this competition is," said Parman. "You have all the families and the students in the audience."

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii