108 prospective students arrived on campus Friday, Feb. 16 to compete for the Founders’ Scholarship Award as part of the first weekend of the university’s annual Scholars of Excellence competition.
Over 100 more students will arrive on campus Feb. 23 for a second in-person competition. An additional virtual weekend will bring total attendance estimates to over 220 students, making this year’s Scholars of Excellence one of the most attended in recent history.
Although the competition began on Saturday, the university provided time on Friday for scholars to explore campus, attend a free concert in one of the university’s coffee shops and become acquainted with their volunteer student host. Scholars also had the opportunity to spend the night in the dorm of their student host to gain an understanding of community life on Union’s campus.
For Amanda Chenault, director for campus visit experience, both the day of exploring community at Union and the day of competition contribute to a main purpose of the Scholars weekend:
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s someone coming for this Scholars weekend, someone coming for a preview day, or they’re coming for a personal visit,” Chenault said. “My prayer is the same every day: Lord, anyone that comes into contact with me today, let them feel seen, known, and loved. And so that is my prayer for every scholar while they are on Union University’s campus. That they feel seen, known and loved. And then our job is done.”
On Saturday morning, scholars participated in individual interviews as well as “hot topic” and essay group discussions. Volunteer faculty served as discussion leaders and evaluators in order to discern the recipient of the Founders’ Scholarship. Although the Founders’ Scholarship Award — which covers tuition, room, meals and services — will be awarded to only one student, additional scholarships are awarded to prospective students as they demonstrate articulate communication and critical thinking.
The hope, according to Chenault, is for the students who receive scholarships such as the Founders’ Scholarship Award to act as ambassadors, both to the student body and to prospective families.
“They represent the student body in whatever they are involved in,” Chenault said, “and they showed strong leadership during their competition weekend, which played into them being able to be chosen for that.”
The Scholars of Excellence weekend can act as a defining moment for choosing whether or not to attend Union even for students who do not receive the highest scholarship award, as it did for Allie Watson.
Watson, a freshman pre-pharmacy major, attended the Scholars of Excellence last year and cites the time with her student host as the most influential part of the Scholars weekend.
“I was stuck between Union and one other school that was a ‘Christian’ school,” Watson said. “It was really eye-opening to see that it is actually Christ-centered here, and it helped make a lot of decisions on where I was headed.”
This year, Watson acted as an overnight student host, coordinating with one other student host for their scholars to spend time together.
“[My Scholars host] was a lot of the reason that I ended up coming to Union,” Watson said. “Like seeing her in this environment. So I wanted to be that for somebody else, because it was just such a positive experience.”
