The Morgan Costa-Rhodes Memorial Scholarship

[marianna]

PACE is proud to announce the Morgan Costa-Rhodes Memorial Scholarship, a one-time $2000 college scholarship for current high school seniors. PACE plans on awarding this scholarship annually.

About Morgan Costa-Rhodes
During her short time at Parkersburg High School, Morgan Costa-Rhodes achieved success in every area in which she was involved. In 2011, Morgan was elected President of the high school's Philosophy Club, was an active member of both the Debate team and Thespian Troupe #264, and, most notably, was a member of PHS's A-team for the Quiz Bowl as Parkersburg High School became West Virginia's state Quiz Bowl champions in 2011. She was also an artist; Morgan's art was selected as the winner of the Young Authors Festival's cover art contest for their annual publication. Serving as artist for PHS'S journalism staff, she also drew the design used for her thespian troupes t-shirts, made especially for their performance of Alice in Wonderland.

Morgan made the most of her time in life. This scholarship serves to commemorate her spirit as a philanthropist, an intellectual force, and a person who was just all-around happy to be here.

Eligibility
Current high school seniors are eligible for this one-time $2000 scholarship. No immediate relatives of PACE Members are eligible.

Students who 1) have demonstrated an interest in quizbowl, 2) have performed community service, and 3) have financial need, are encouraged to apply. These three criteria will be weighted equally.

Required materials
To apply, applicants should email the following materials to [email protected]:
- Name, address, email address, guardian name, guardian email address, high school, and FAFSA Expected Family Contribution (EFC). If and only if the FAFSA EFC does not accurately portray the applicant’s financial need situation, applicants may add a short description of their financial need, maximum one page.
- A description of the applicant’s high school quizbowl career, at most one page.
- A description of the applicant’s community service, at most one page. Community service need not be quizbowl-related.
- A reference letter from an adult who is familiar with the student's quizbowl experience and/or the student's community service. This letter should be sent directly from the adult, not from the student, with the student's name included in the subject line of the email.

Applications will be considered on the equal basis of the applicant’s demonstrated interest in quizbowl, community service, and financial need. Applications will be reviewed blindly by a member of the Costa family as well as four PACE Members selected by and including the PACE President. The recipient will be selected by a consensus among these five people.

Important dates
The deadline for applications is March 1, 2017 to [email protected].
Notifications will be made April 1, 2017.

Note
The scholarship money will be sent directly to the college unless the recipient provides a reason why it should be handled otherwise.

For any questions regarding the scholarship, please contact [email protected].

EDIT (1/6/17): The review process will be blind.
EDIT (1/11/17): The reference letter should be sent directly from the adult, not the student, with the student's name included in the subject line of the email.

[Danielle]

Query: are undocumented students eligible for this scholarship, and if so, how do they demonstrate financial need (since they will be unable to fill out a FAFSA)?

[Stained Diviner]

We are looking into this. If a student cannot obtain a FAFSA score for one reason or another, they can contact me using the email address above to discuss alternative ways to demonstrate financial need. We are not in the business of determining citizenship status, and there may be international students who cannot get a score.

[Cheynem]

Is the application process blind?

[Stained Diviner]

Actually, thanks for the reminder--it's something we had talked about but I didn't set up properly until now. Emails to the scholarship address will go to PACE Secretary Mike Hundley, who will remove identifying information before forwarding the information on to me. I will be on the selection committee, and Mike will not be.

[marianna]

Just a reminder that applications are due in about 2 weeks on March 1st! The recommendation letter is also due by the same date, so we encourage potential applicants to locate and contact a recommender if they haven't done so already.

[Stained Diviner]

The due date is today.

[marianna]

Congratulations to the inaugural winner of the Morgan Costa-Rhodes Memorial Scholarship: Casey Wetherbee from Ithaca High School (Ithaca, NY)!

Casey is a high school senior who will be attending Georgetown University next year, where he plans to continue playing quizbowl. For more about Casey, check out his #ThisIsQuizbowl profile from January!

PACE would also like to thank the other applicants this year. We were incredibly impressed by your applications, which made for a strong and fierce scholarship competition. We look forward to future years of awarding the Costa-Rhodes Scholarship!