A year spent taking classes over Zoom and watching TV news about COVID cases ticking up, down and up again left Skyla Degrasse with a sense of conviction. She would become a doctor, she decided last year, so that when a new pandemic appears shell be able to confront the crisis head-on.

I like to help people in general, the Hammond High School senior said in a phone call Friday. Id do anything to lend a helping hand in that situation.

There was one problem: Degrasses family would have been unable to foot the bill demanded by most undergraduate medical programs, her mother Sandra said. With few choices, the 17-year-old planned on enrolling at Northshore Technical Community College in her hometown.

Skylas options dramatically multiplied Wednesday when her mom got a call from the Louisiana Department of Health.

Two Louisiana residents won big in the state's inaugural vaccine lottery drawing on Friday.

The caller said Skyla had just been named a winner in Gov. John Bel Edwards shot at a million vaccination lottery, awarding her a $100,000 college scholarship enough to send the aspiring doctor to an undergraduate medical school next fall.

She wouldnt be going to any kind of university if she didnt win this scholarship, Sandra Degrasse said. And then this comes along, and its like, wow, she can go wherever she wants.

LDH and Edwards office on Friday announced Degrasse as one of the first pair of weekly sweepstakes winners. The other, 80-year-old Clement Desalla, of New Orleans, took home $100,000.

Offering a combined $2.3 million in prizes allocated from federal pandemic relief dollars, the campaigns goal is to encourage people in the second-least-inoculated state in the country to get vaccinated as the more transmissible delta variant takes hold.

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Each of the next four weeks will feature two giveaways: a scholarship and a cash prize valued at $100,000 each. The final drawing scheduled for Aug. 6 will include a $1 million jackpot and five $100,000 scholarships.

Degrasse called the scholarship an unexpected blessing, saying she would have gotten vaccinated even without the extra incentive.

Louisiana announced the first two winners in its vaccine lottery Friday, kicking off five weeks of drawings that will dole out $2.3 million in

Having to do school virtually, that was really the number one thing that made me want to get vaccinated, Skyla said. That, and making me want to go into the medical field to help in these kinds of crises.

The family had already gotten their shots when the sweepstakes were announced. They were going to do it anyway, and this is an added bonus, Sandra Degrasse said.

A science lover who counts biology among her favorite subjects at Hammond High, Skyla said she hopes the scholarship could send her to Southeastern Louisiana University or maybe somewhere farther from home, like Ohio State University, which houses a renowned medical school.

This has helped me a lot, she said,and Im so thankful.

Louisianans who have received at least one dose of the vaccine can enter the lottery by visiting the shotatamillion.com website, or by calling (877) 356-1511.

James Finn writes for The Advocate as a Report For America corps member. Email him at JFinn@theadvocate.com or follow him on Twitter @RJamesFinn.

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She won $100K for being vaccinated. Now this Louisiana student wants to attend med school - The Advocate