MERIDIAN — When senior Avery Lavier walked into the Mountain View High School auditorium in Meridian on Wednesday, she had no idea she would be walking out with a $40,000 college scholarship from the College Board.

Her look of surprise and joy was genuine. “I never thought it was possible that someone like me would ever get anything like this,” Avery said. (Watch the awards ceremony here.)

The scholarship came about because Avery uses the College Board’s website “Big Future” to plan for college – making school lists, taking career quizzes, and learning about scholarship opportunities.

Students who engage with the website are automatically entered to win scholarships. The Board randomly selects hundreds of $500 scholarship winners each month, and two $40,000 scholarship winners.

“I’ve always wanted to go to college, and I’ve been really stressing out about how I’m going to find the money….and this puts my anxiety at ease,” Avery said.

Avery’s family attended the assembly and were just told she would be receiving an “award.” They were shocked to hear about the scholarship. Her mother, Tara Lavier, suppressed tears as she described what this would mean for her family.

“[Avery’s] an amazing kid…She’s a 4.0 student. She’s the hardest worker ever.…This helps the whole family and her to know that she can go wherever she wants. She can do whatever she wants. The sky’s the limit.”

Avery hopes to use the scholarship to attend a school like Boise State University or the University of Idaho. She is interested in going into the medical field and potentially working as a nurse.

Planning her future is something that Avery has been working on since the beginning of high school. She’s part of the AVID program (Advancement Via Individual Determination), where students give up an elective each semester to take classes that focus on academic success and college and career preparation.

In fact, it was in this class she found out about Big Future. Mountain View College and Career counselor Ashley Walton said,  “I’m always telling [students] we’ll get them there, that the scholarship will come. So to see it come to fruition is a huge deal.”

Penny Kotterman, Senior Director of Government Relations at the College Board, said the Board has been giving these scholarships out for the past six years. Avery is the second student in Idaho to win the $40,000 scholarship.

Of the recipients Kotterman said: “[The scholarships have] truly impacted their lives. Kids that didn’t think they could ever go to college because they weren’t sure they could afford it….suddenly, this gave them an opportunity.”

Watch the awards ceremony here.