LPGA Foundation Announces 2019 Dinah Shore and Phyllis G. Meekins Scholarship Recipients
- Details
- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2019-06-27
By LPGA
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — Ann Gregory and Jaden Cardoso 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
Gregory, a graduate of V.J. and Angela Skutt Catholic High School in Omaha, Nebraska, 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.
Gregory fully embraced school life and captained the varsity golf team in her junior and senior years, played on the tennis team, and served as treasurer of the International Thespian Society and as vice-president of the Tri-M Music Honors Society. She also sang in the Vivace Show Choir and the Concert Choir, was a group retreat leader in the Campus Ministry and a member of the Student Council. She represented the golf team for all four years at high school and was named Golf Academic-All State for three years in a row. She qualified for the state tournament four times and placed in several high school tournaments, including at district and conference competitions, and attended the LPGA Leadership Academy in her senior year.
From next year, Gregory will attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she plans to major in elementary education and will also take part in the University Honors Program.
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. Cardoso, who will be a 2019 graduate of Fremont High School in Fremont, Indiana, where she has a cumulative grade point average of 3.99, is this year’s recipient.
Cardoso began playing golf as a sophomore at high school and ended that year as one of the top-three players on the team. Twelve months later, she had taken over as the school's number one golfer while becoming the NECC Conference Champion and an NECC All-Conference player. In her senior season, she established herself as the leader and captain on the team and was named an NECC All-Conference Athlete, a KPC Media All-Area Athlete and an Academic All-State Athlete. Away from golf, Cardoso was co-captain of the school's softball team, class vice president and secretary and volunteered for charitable work for organizations such as Trees Church, United Way and Salvation Army while also serving as an instructor for the Wavemakers swim team.
Cardoso will be attending Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana, where her goal is to earn bachelor's degrees in mathematics and information systems before going on to pursue a master's degree and then a doctorate in mathematics. She has longer-term hopes of becoming either an actuary or a cyber-security specialist.
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.