Each year, a handful of incoming freshmen receive the Presidential Scholars Award. Students that exhibit exceptional academic and leadership skills are given the opportunity to become a recipient of this award.
Changes have been made to the award each year as more students become eligible.
These scholars will be named based on their application to ACU and their academic profile which consists of high school transcripts and test scores. Students must have an ACT score of 27 or higher and a grade point average of 3.5 or better to receive the scholarship.
The Presidential Scholars Award offers special opportunities for the recipients.
“Being a presidential scholar has given me the ability to gain a foothold in many opportunities that I might not have had otherwise,” said Grayson Young, a recipient of the award. “I have more time to study due to the fact that I don’t have to have a job. The scholarship has influenced my college career greatly. It has encouraged me to never settle in my studies, and it has also been a great foot-in-the-door for many internships, jobs and programs.”
Young, junior nursing major from Lubbock, said he thinks the scholarship looked great on his application to the School of Nursing and helped bolster his application for an internship he applied for at a hospital this summer.
Emma Mack, freshman undeclared major from Idalou, is another recipient of the award.
“Being a presidential scholar affects how I pay for ACU,” she said. “Because of the scholarship, I don’t have to worry as much about my finances or a lot of student loans in the future.”
Recipients are required to complete 15 hours of community service each semester, maintain a 3.5 GPA and complete the required amount of Chapel credits.
Current scholars offer advice to incoming freshmen that may receive the award.
“If I had any advice for incoming presidential scholarship recipients, it would be to not underestimate the opportunity that has been presented to them,” Young said. “Understand that the scholarship offers them so many opportunities and that their hard work during high school earned them this prestigious award.”
While there are many benefits of being a presidential scholar, Young said it requires discipline to maintain.
“I would encourage them to realize that sometimes their friends will go out without them and that they will have to stay in and study,” Young said. “I would remind them that the hard work will pay off in college just like it did in high school.”
