NEWS

N.C. high school seniors may self-nominate for Morehead Award to UNC for first time

CHAPEL HILL -- Effective this fall, seniors at North Carolina high schools who do not receive their schools' nominations for the Morehead Award will have the opportunity to nominate themselves.

"It’s the right thing to do," said Charles E. Lovelace Jr., executive director of the John Motley Morehead Foundation, which grants the full, four-year merit-based scholarship to top student leaders to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"The high school experience is much broader now than it was even 10 years ago, with a much more varied range of leadership opportunities available to motivated students," Lovelace said. "It is more important than ever that we see all the students who have the potential to make a difference as Morehead Scholars."

North Carolina high schools report that they often have more qualified students than the Morehead process will allow them to nominate, Lovelace said. Each is permitted up to four nominees, based on the number in the senior class.

"We want to attract a more diverse group of students, and we think this change will help," Lovelace said. "The Morehead is the perfect match for bright, independent, self-motivated students -- students who would nominate themselves if they felt they were right for this unique opportunity. We want to see those students in our selection process."

Rather than open the process to direct application only, the foundation still will receive nominations from high schools, he said: "We value the schools’ experience and opinions in making those difficult initial selections."

This year’s deadline for students to self-nominate is Oct. 4. Students who wish to nominate themselves should visit the foundation’s Web site at http://www.moreheadfoundation.org. Awards for 2003-2004, to be announced next spring, will be valued at $72,000 for each in-state student and $120,000 for each out-of-state student.

"For more than half a century, the Morehead Award has been an investment in the potential of exceptional student leaders," Lovelace said. "The award offers motivated students the challenge to create an extraordinary life."

Besides all expenses for four years of undergraduate study at Carolina, the Morehead Award funds international and domestic opportunities each summer for leadership development and experiential learning in four areas: outdoor leadership, public service, enterprise and travel and study abroad. Mentoring also is available from the nearly 2,500 Morehead alumni.

Selection criteria include demonstrated leadership ability, academic achievement, moral force of character and physical vigor. Scholars are chosen on the basis of merit and accomplishment, not financial need, and are expected to make significant contributions to the UNC community.

This year the foundation will resume the selection calendar used before the schedule was revised in 1999. Nominations again will take place in October of the nominees’ senior year of high school, with Morehead recipients named the next spring.

For the past three years, nominations were in the spring of students' junior year, with recipients named the following fall. The accelerated calendar was designed to align with selective universities’ early decision admissions programs and to allow students more time to weigh their college options.

The decision to return to the pre-1999 calendar was based in part on feedback from high school counselors, who preferred to nominate in the fall of students' senior year.

"From the Foundation’s perspective, we were pleased with the results from the new selection calendar, but we did not find that the results warranted the added pressure on school personnel," said Lovelace.

A total of 221 Morehead Scholars now study at UNC and are involved in numerous areas of university life. Current scholars include the student body vice president; UNC’s chapter president of Phi Beta Kappa; two vice chairs of the Undergraduate Honor Court; and the co-president of the Campus Y, UNC’s largest student organization.

In the past 10 years, three Morehead Scholars were selected as Rhodes Scholars and 21 for other distinguished graduate awards.

The late John Motley Morehead III, an 1891 UNC graduate who gave the Morehead Planetarium to the university, began the Morehead program in 1951. For more information, visit the foundation's site on the World Wide Web, http://www.moreheadfoundation.org or call the foundation at 919-962-1201.

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Contacts: Charles E. Lovelace, executive director, Morehead Foundation, or Megan Mazzocchi, associate director, 919-962-1201, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays

News Services Contact: L.J. Toler at 919-962-8589