News Release

Local angles: Pinetops, Rocky Mount

Photo: To download a mug shot, see end of story.

By L.J. TOLER
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL — Rebecca S. Williford of Rocky Mount, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has won a 2005 Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship, one of the nation’s most generous merit awards.

The scholarship covers tuition, room, board, fees and books -- up to $50,000 annually -- for as many as six years. The award is intended to provide full funding for a student to complete a graduate or professional degree.

Given the amount of the scholarship, 11 recipients are headed to Harvard University; four to Columbia, Stanford and Oxford universities; and three to the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Williford will use her scholarship to attend the UNC School of Law, beginning this fall. She will specialize in disability, health care and civil rights law and the Americans With Disabilities Act.

"I want to spend my life working on behalf of people with disabilities, addressing their unmet needs in order to build a world where (they) exercise self-determination and enjoy real access to the activities of life," said Williford, who earned a bachelor’s degree with highest honors from Carolina last December.

"To reduce the disproportionate number of individuals with disabilities who live in poverty, I hope to create a nonprofit center that has the mission of improving access to post-secondary education and employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities," she said. She intends to work in North Carolina.

Williford was a competitive swimmer until the onset of a chronic neurological and cardiovascular disorder 10 years ago. In 1998, she began using a wheelchair. Since then, she has experienced first-hand the difficulties and extra expenses that people with disabilities and chronic illnesses encounter.

Williford, the daughter of John and Velda Williford, graduated from Rocky Mount Senior High School in 1998. At UNC, she majored in political science with a history minor, compiling a 3.7 grade-point-average.

A third-generation Carolina graduate, she follows the lead of her father and grandfather. John S. Williford Jr., a Rocky Mount attorney, earned a bachelor’s degree in 1970 and a law degree in 1976, both from UNC. His father, John S. Williford, completed a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in 1947 and ran Service Drug Store in Pinetops until he retired.

The Cooke Foundation, of Landsdowne, Va., chose 76 winners from among 1,290 students nominated by 600 colleges and universities nationwide. Williford is Carolina’s fourth winner since the first awards were made in 2002 to students from select states. Last year, for the first time, the program opened to students nationwide.

The late Jack Kent Cooke owned professional sports teams including the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Kings and Washington Redskins. Among his other businesses were newspapers, magazines, radio stations, cable television and real estate holdings, including the Chrysler Building in New York City.

When he died in 1997, he left most of his fortune to establish the foundation. Its mission is to help young people of exceptional promise reach their full potential through education.

"Rebecca’s success in securing this scholarship places her nationally among the country’s most promising and distinguished post-baccalaureate students," said Dr. George Lensing, a Carolina English professor and director of the Office of Distinguished Scholarships. "She clearly is destined to play a decisive role in appropriating the law to the needs of Americans with disabilities. Rebecca is truly one of Carolina’s priceless gems."

Since her graduation, Williford has worked as a teaching and research assistant in Carolina’s curriculum in American studies. Her project: organizing and leading students in wheelchair accessibility surveys at all 16 UNC campuses. She also is helping develop a first-year seminar, "Access to Higher Education."

In 2002, Williford led daily campus tours for prospective students and their families, working for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. For three years, she was the only student member and wheelchair user on the UNC Disability Advisory Committee. Her participation won her a campus award for leadership and service.

Also while at Carolina, Williford was a student body secretary, a student representative on a campus signage task force, a member of a teaching awards committee and the student advisory committee to the chancellor, and a mentor for a first-year student.

Her undergraduate honors thesis, "Efficient and Equitable Campus Accessibility," was awarded highest honors. She was invited to present it to UNC Chancellor James Moeser and his cabinet, as well as the international Society for Disability Studies.

Williford has been inducted into two of the campus’s highest honor societies, the Order of the Golden Fleece and the Order of the Grail-Valkyries. She was vice president of both. She was inducted into the Golden Key International and political science honor societies.

"Keeping up with my education and extracurricular activities despite fluctuations in my health has sometimes meant taking a different path or needing extra time," Williford said. "But these challenges have helped me develop the relentless fortitude and drive that are necessary to accomplish goals and succeed in a legal environment."

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/students/williford_rebecca_05.JPG

Note: The Cooke Foundation news release is online at http://www.jackkentcookefoundation.org/jkcf_web/content.aspx?page=1414126&mode=stage

Note: Williford can be reached at (252) 904-4401; Lensing, at (919) 843-7764 or (919) 962-4053

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589