LPGA Foundation Announces 2018 Scholarship Recipients
- Details
- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2018-08-15
By MARK LAMPORT-STOKES, LPGA
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — Andrea Peterson and Christyn Carr have been selected by The LPGA Foundation as the two high school graduates who will receive this year’s Dinah Shore and Phyllis G. Meekins scholarships.
Both candidates have demonstrated outstanding academic excellence and leadership skills, as well as active involvement and service to their communities, while also fulfilling the specific requirements for each scholarship award.
Dinah Shore Scholarship
Peterson, a graduate of Western High School in Russiaville, Indiana, is this year’s Dinah Shore Scholarship recipient. The $5,000 scholarship was established in 1994 to honor the late Dinah Shore, a Hollywood legend and honorary member of the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame. The annual Dinah Shore Scholarship is awarded to a female high school senior who will attend college but not play collegiate golf.
Peterson fully embraced school life and served as her senior class president, golf team captain, tennis team captain and president of the CEO Entrepreneurship club. A U.S. Presidential Scholar, Peterson racked up multiple awards, including the All-A Honor Roll, the Dean Reseller Academic Excellence Award, had a cumulative grade point average of 4.03 and appeared on the current three-year Dean's list. As a golfer, she placed top 10 in the Hoosier Conference and helped her team win the Sectional Championship for two years in a row. She also made time to co-found Veritas, a high school youth group; served as a leader for the St. Joan of Arc Youth Group and worked as a tutor for both middle school and high school students.
Peterson plans to enroll into the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, where she will study finance and marketing, before going on to Vanderbilt University where she has her sights set on getting an MBA "on my way to becoming the CEO of my own company," she says.
To qualify for the Dinah Shore Scholarship, the applicant must have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.2; must have played in a minimum of 50 percent of her high school golf team’s scheduled events or regularly played golf for the past two years; must have demonstrated leadership skills and/or extraordinary community involvement; and must have been accepted to an accredited undergraduate academic program.
Phyllis G. Meekins Scholarship
Established in 2006, the Phyllis G. Meekins Scholarship awards $1,250 to a female high school senior from a minority background, who will be pursuing a full-time course of study and playing collegiate golf at an accredited college or university in the United States. Carr, a 2018 graduate of Northview High School in Johns Creek, Georgia, where she had a cumulative grade point average of 4.0, is this year’s recipient.
President of both the Black History Club and the Step Team at her school, Carr won the 2017 Georgia 6A state title with a birdie on the fifth hole of a playoff. She also won four Hurricane Junior Georgia Tournaments (HJGT) during her prep career, her most recent HJGT victory coming in May last year. She also won the 2017 William (Bill) Dickey Jr., Invitational, gaining full exemption for the Girls Junior PGA Championship later that year. At the end of 2017, she was ranked 15th on the Junior Golf Scoreboard in Georgia and seventh on the Junior Golf Scoreboard for Grade Class in Georgia. Carr is the daughter of a golf professional, Chris Carr.
Carr will be attending North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, North Carolina, where she plans to play on the Aggie women's golf team and major in nursing. She also has hopes of trying to qualify for the LPGA Tour at some point in her future.
The namesake of the scholarship, the late Phyllis G. Meekins, became a member of the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals in 1981, earning Life Member status in 2001. Known for her dedication to junior golf, Meekins established the Phyllis G. Meekins (PGM) Golf Clinic, Inc. at Mount Airy’s Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, Penn., in 1973. Under Meekins’ guidance, thousands of students have participated in the PGM Golf Clinics, and through developing life skills such as perseverance, goal setting, self-discipline and leadership, many have also gone on to achieve significant success, both in the classroom, as well as in their careers.
Meekins was inducted into the National African American Golfers Hall of Fame in 1984 and was nominated for the 1993 LPGA Teacher of the Year award. She was recognized by the National Golf Foundation (NGF) with the NGF Out-standing Service Award.