Avery Powell at one of last year’s football games. (Photo provided)

NEWPORT – Avery Powell, a 2026 graduate of Frontier High School and one of the recipients of the Hank Morus Scholarship, is hoping to use that money to pursue a career in environmental engineering at Ohio University.

Powell is the son of Kylee Haught and Matthew Powell.

At Frontier High School, Powell was a three-sport athlete in football, basketball and track. During his senior year he played only football and basketball.

For the past two years Powell has been working as a farm hand.

“I work as a farm hand in New Matamoras for Jared Kiggins and I also do odd jobs throughout town if anybody needs some help,” he said. “But most of the time I am working as a farm hand; tending cows, bailing hay and fixing fences.”

Avery Powell looks over the Frontier High School football field. (Photo provided)

Powell said he got into that job by simply answering an ad looking for help at a local farm.

“Kiggins just put out a posting saying he was needing some help,” he said. “I just reached out and I’ve been working for him for close to two years

Powell said when he started the job he was not a stranger to the work.

“My grandfather was a farmer,” he said.

Powell said he wants to pursue environmental engineering because it will give him the opportunity to be outdoors.

Avery Powell at the 2026 graduation ceremony. (Photo provided)

“I was hoping to pursue a field that gets me outdoors,” he said. “The solid modeling and some of the computer work at Ohio University are fairly interesting to me too.”

“I’d like to try to build things.”

He was influenced some by his father’s line of work.

“My dad is a forester, working for the Wayne National Forest,” he said, “I like the idea of being outside all the time. He gets to work outdoors extremely often, that’s why I think environmental engineering is what I want. Even if I don’t necessarily like the engineering aspect I can always have environmental science or a field I would be able to pursue, I think.”

At Frontier Powell was a member of the National Honor Society, student council, and was a peer tutor. He was also a member of the homecoming float building committee.

Frontier High School’s trophy case honors the team's top scorers. Powell scored 1,382 points in his high school basketball career. (Photo provided)

In August, Powell will begin a new stage in his life. He plans to attend Ohio University to study environmental engineering. He also graduated from Frontier High School with a liberal arts transfer degree from Washington State College of Ohio.

Powell said he wants a career that would benefit everyone.

“I would like to find a job around here that helps with soil and water quality or even air quality,” he said. “We have a lot of plants in the area and there are pollutants in our local waters and soils. I’d like to contribute to helping with that.”

Powell said he had classes in high school that covered some of the math and science prerequisites. He said he needs to cover English and some arts and humanities courses.

“It will help with the expenses in school,” he said.

Avery Powell in a preseason photo in his basketball uniform. (Photo provided)

In high school Powell said outside of the math and science classes his favorite was history.

“We had a great middle school history teacher and an amazing high school history teacher,” he said. “I always found it interesting to learn about the past.”

Powell said he was most interested in U.S. History.

Powell added he is looking forward to activities at Ohio University.

“I’d like to join some clubs, I know they are an outdoorsy town,” he said. “They have lots of lakes and hiking trails. Maybe I’ll join hiking clubs or outdoor clubs.”

Avery Powell's graduation portrait. (Photo provided)

And, he said he hopes to play some basketball on the intramural level.

“I just want to stay active,” he said.

Jeffrey Saulton can be reached at jsaulton@newsandsentinel.com.

Off to another day at school. (Photo provided)

Lighting a candle at the National Honor Society ceremony is Avery Powell. (Photo provided)

Avery Powell shows off his latest catch, as he enjoys the outdoors. (Photo provided)