WINDSOR HEIGHTS, Iowa — Parker Libolt has been awarded a $5,000 scholarship from Ruby’s Rainbow to attend a special program at the University of Iowa.

The scholarship, awarded on Wednesday, will support Parker in pursuing higher education through the UI REACH program, which offers life skills training, internships, job shadowing, and career options.

“Helps us with different things. Especially at the University of Iowa, the REACH program. Great, great, you know, just a great all-around program. It is spendy because the kids are getting the experience. So this helps out tremendously,” said Rob Libolt, Parker’s father.

Ruby’s Rainbow is an organization dedicated to helping individuals with Down syndrome pursue higher education.

Outside of his academic pursuits, Parker is a big sports fan and contributes to his hometown’s radio show, “Center Point Stormcast.”

All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by WHO 13 News. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by WHO 13 News staff before being published.