Eight incoming freshmen will receive scholarships from Family Feud host and former Kent State student Steve Harvey that will “cover the total cost of attendance for each student,” according to a press release sent out by Kent State on Tuesday.

Harvey’s staff arranged for all the students to fly to Los Angeles on May 9 to film an episode of Harvey’s show Steve. The episode will air Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Cleveland on WEWS-TV; air times for other areas can be found on the Steve website.

The scholarships come from The Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation, which is working with Kent State to make sure each student will receive “approximately $23,000.” The foundation will donate a total of $736,000, according to the press release. 

In order to renew the scholarships each semester, the students must maintain a 2.5 grade point average. 

“The scholarships are in memory of Devin Moore, a Kent State student and member of the Psi Gamma Chapter who died in 2017 while playing basketball at Kent State’s Student Recreation and Wellness Center,” according to the press release. 

Five of the incoming students are a part of Kent State’s TRIO Upward Bound pre-college program, which aims to “help students overcome class, social, academic and cultural barriers to higher education,” according to the TRIO website. 

Two other students attend the Ginn Academy in Cleveland, described on its website as the “only all-male public academy, high school” in Ohio. Another student is part of the Steve Harvey Mentoring Program. 

In addition to the scholarships, the eight students will receive additional support from the university’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) “to ensure their academic success,” said Alfreda Brown, vice president of DEI, in the press release.

The students who received the scholarships and will appear Wednesday on Harvey’s show are: 

Lamont Averett of Barberton, Ohio

Zethran Jackson of Akron, Ohio

Mark Jenkins of Barberton, Ohio

Jaiden Morales of Lorain, Ohio

Johnell Parnell of Akron, Ohio

Kelvon Gibson of Cleveland, Ohio

Anthony Morris Jr. of Cleveland, Ohio

Craig Johnson of Springdale, Maryland

Rachel Karas is the editor of KentWired. Contact her at [email protected].