Tate Watts, a senior at Westmoore High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has won the 2018 Wichita State University Clay Barton Scholarship.

He will receive $12,000 a year for four years to attend Wichita State. The $48,000 Barton Scholarship is one of the largest business scholarships in Kansas.

Watts is founder of Wattage, a self-run multimedia business. He specializes in photography, videography and DJing.

Barton Scholarship history

In 1991, the late Rent-A-Center co-founder W. Frank Barton, who provided the naming endowment for WSU's Barton School of Business, established a scholarship in his son Clay’s name.

Clay Barton died from cancer in 1988 at the age of 20, cutting his promising life short. While the Clay Barton Scholarship does not substitute for Clay’s presence, it is a powerful legacy.

This legacy speaks to the richness of the Barton tradition here at Wichita State. Barton Scholars are expected to be the “best of the best,” excelling in academics, leadership and service, fitting the pieces of their lives intricately into a structure that has lasting value.

The candidates face a rigorous set of challenges in competing for the Clay Barton Scholarship.

The mission of Wichita State University is to be an essential educational, cultural and economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good. Wichita State is a doctoral research university enrolling nearly 15,000 students and offering 59 undergraduate degree programs in more than 150 areas of study in seven undergraduate colleges. The Graduate School offers 45 master’s and 12 doctoral degrees that offer study in more than 100 areas. Wichita State’s Innovation Campus is an interconnected community of partnership buildings, laboratories and mixed-use areas where students, faculty, staff, entrepreneurs and businesses have access to the university’s vast resources and technology. For more information, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/wichitastate and Facebook at www.facebook.com/wichita.state.