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scholarship recipients |
The Rocky Mountain Literary Festival is the only literary festival that uses proceeds to
fund scholarships for continuing education.
fund scholarships for continuing education.
2023 scholarship recipients
ISABELLA BJORKLUND
Isabella will be graduating from Evergreen High School and plans to attend Grinnell College in the fall. Writing is a life-long passion for Isabella and she is currently editing the second draft of her book. She will major in English and journalism. The most influential book she's read is The Lightening Thief. "The Lightning Thief ... made me fall in love with a group of characters that taught me how to overcome things I was facing in my real life."
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LEO HAMILTON
Leo is graduating from Evergreen High School and will attend DePauw University in the fall to study business. He credits Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 speech titled "Citizenship in a Republic" as the piece of writing having the most influence on his life. Leo says this speech has helped him to survive "events which I thought would destroy me."
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SYDNEY STILES
Sydney will be graduating from Evergreen High School. She will attend Colorado Mesa University to study nursing. Sydney's favorite literature genre is science fiction. She says this genre, and more specifically, the first book in the Divergent Trilogy, "strengthened my imagination, but it also allowed me to escape the hard times in my life and enter a purely fictional reality. "
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KATIE TULLIS
Katie will graduate from Evergreen High School. Although Katie hasn't decided on a college (it's between three) or a career path (possibly law enforcement) yet, she wants to emulate the "strong women who do not deny themselves a challenge" that have surrounded her while growing up. The experiences of the tralfamadorians in the book Slaughterhouse Five, have helped Katie to deal with the loss of loved ones in her life.
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2022 scholarship recipient
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SAMANTHA FERGUSON
Samantha Ferguson is attending Belmont University in Nashville, TN in the fall. Her plan is to major in music production and song writing. Samantha has this to say about literature: "Reflecting upon the books and stories I've not only read throughout my high school career but my life as a whole, I came across a book I read by Stephen King called On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. After reading and analyzing this book in my 10th grade AP Lang class, I learned many skills that drastically improved my writing that I still use to this day. I made connections to the rhetorical triangle and was able to apply strategies I learned to my studies in school. I consider this a piece of writing, one that had the most influence on my life for the way it has forever changed my writing." She has used the teachings in this book in her own writing and class studies.
2021 scholarship recipient
Aiden Phoebe will be attending the University of Arizona in fall 2021. Aiden says, "...the book that's influenced my life the most has also been the most boring one." The book is Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural. He thought the book contained useless information about the speech, with only four of the 200 pages containing the speech. After discussing the book in class, however, Aiden realized every bit of information in the book was relevant to the speech. It gave him a new perspective on how to interpret literature.
2020 scholarship recipients
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2019 scholarship recipients
SYDNEY GILBERT
Sydney will be attending the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in the fall, and eventually law school. The piece of writing that has had the biggest influence on her is the US Constitution. She says, "Reading the Constitution started me on the path I’m on now. It influenced what college I want to go to, what I want to study, and what career I want. If I hadn’t read it, I would not be the person I am today."
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LAUREN PRESCOTT
Lauren says, "I dream to fly." To pursue that dream, she plans to attend Ohio State University and study aviation. The book that had the biggest influence on her is I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. Her favorite line from the book is, "If one man can destroy everything, why can’t one girl change it?" Lauren says this quote has encouraged her to change the world and to have a positive impact on people.
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PAIGE RINGELBERG
Paige will be majoring in English at Hastings College in the fall. After earning a bachelor's degree she would like to work at a publishing company and eventually write her own book. Paige's favorite writing is a series of four books by Christopher Paolini titled The Inheritance Cycle. "The story is filled with sacrifice, courage, fear, death, sadness, love, and the adventure of a lifetime," says Paige. She credits this book series with helping her discover her passion for writing.
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2018 scholarship recipients
BELLA ​BERNINZONI
Bella will be majoring in business. The book that has had the biggest impact on her is Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristoff."To me this was a very powerful book as it explains the daily struggles and discrimination women have to endure every single day around the world."
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GRACE FREZA
Grace says the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed showed her "how life's challenges can be overcome." She will attend the University of Colorado Boulder in the fall and major in Biology.Her long-term goal is to become a doctor.
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LOGAN GUNN
Logan is the first person in his family to attend college. He will be attending the University of Denver majoring in business analytics and marketing. He is a huge fan of the Boston Celtics and the New England Patriots. Logan hopes to someday own his own business.
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IZABELLA MASTROIANNI
Izabella said in her essay that reading A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry "created a drive in me to learn and understand people, their culture, and their experiences." She will attend Colorado State University and major in biochemistry and work in a genetics research laboratory.
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CASSIDY ROSENBERG
Cassidy plans to attend the University of Denver with her major a toss-up between biology and music, or maybe both! She says the first time she read Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger she "didn't get it. So I read it again. And again. I read it until I understood. ... I understood that being Holden Caulfield is perfectly okay."
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BRIDGER TENNEY
Bridger will attend Texas Christian University and major in international business. His goal in college is to prepare himself to receive an MBA. Bridger was moved by All Quiet on the Western Front. He wrote that it helped him to understand what his grandfathers went through when fighting in the war.
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2017 scholarship recipients
NATALIE FILE
Natalie plans to major in elementary education and would also like to have a studio for teaching piano. She credits her teachers with having helped to develop some of her strengths and hopes to have the same influence on others as a teacher. Natalie has been involved in marching band at Conifer High Sschool and also participates in swimming and diving. She will attend Hastings College in the fall. Natalie loves to read!
ERICA KOENIGSBERG
Erica graduated from Conifer High School. She aspires to be a college English teacher and will be attending Cornell College. She is a writer and calls writing "the endurance sport of the arts."
Erica was a member of the Writing Club and the National Honor Society. |
JADEN HUTCHINS
Jaden graduated from Jeffco Open School. She is passionate about science and math and will major in biomedical sciences at the University of Denver in the fall. Jaden also plays the viola and volunteers with JeffCo Libraries. She has completed summer internships at various universities where she studied pharmaceuticals and graph theory.
EZRA STEWART
Ezra is a graduate of Evergreen High School and will attend Brigham Young University in the fall. He wants to write and publish books. After college graduation, Ezra wants to become an editor so he can immerse himself in his work and become a better writer in the process. His long term goal is to have his own publishing business.
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2016 Scholarship recipients
TY BETTS
Ty is attending Colorado State University. He is unsure of his major but he knows it should be something where he can educate people through new forms of media.
Ty has lived in Conifer his entire life. He says his backyard has been an amazing place to explore and hike with his parents and two older brothers. "There is no other place I would have liked to grow up than Conifer." |
KAITLYN PARKS
Kaitlyn is attending Colorado State University and hopes to become a doctor. She plans to specialize in Pediatric Cancer, a career she realizes will be emotionally difficult, but she is determined to make people's lives better.
Kaitlyn was a high school leader at Jefferson County's Outdoor Education Lab and worked with sixth-grade students from Dennison Elementary. She states, "... throughout my life I will use the leaderships skills I learned at Outdoor Lab to improve the world." |
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