The list of the more than 3,000 recipients of the Morehead-Cain Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill boasts some notable names.
Among them: N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper, U.S. Rep. David Price, National Cancer Institute Director Ned Sharpless, New York Times best-selling novelist Shilpi Somaya Gowda and National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins.
You can now add a Siler City resident to that list.
Lindley Andrew, a senior at Jordan-Matthews High School, has been named a Morehead-Cain Scholar for the Class of 2024, an honor she said hasn’t quite sunk in yet. Granted, it’s a strange time for a celebration, but she’s still honored.
“It means a ton to me,” Andrew said. “It’s a really good reflection of the work that I’ve put into it. It’s definitely not been easy, but this make it feels worth it.”
The Morehead-Cain is the first merit scholarship program established in the United States and fully funds four years and four summers of educational experiences at UNC. Applicants go through a thorough process: filling out an application, being chosen as a semifinalist, undergoing video interviews, becoming finalists, visiting campus for more information and interviews and finally being selected.
Andrew said she spent two weeks working on the application and another week editing, but wasn’t expecting much to come out of it. But as she progressed through each round of the process, her attitude changed.
“I got more passionate about it and doing more research about it and fell in love with the scholarship,” she said. “For the final weekend, when we actually got to go to Carolina and the campus and hear stories about it, I thought, ‘I want this so bad.’”
Andrew’s resume at Jordan-Matthews is littered with accolades. She has been active in both athletics and arts at J-M, playing tennis and performing as The Baker’s Wife in “Into the Woods” and Sebastian the crab in “The Little Mermaid” at the school. But as the JMArts newsletter from April 1 announcing the scholarship award stated, that’s not all.
“Her excellence extends well beyond the arts,” the newsletter stated. “The Dual Language student is fluent in Spanish and studied the language last summer at Governor’s School of North Carolina, a residential program for top scholars across the state. She has competed at the international level in DECA high school marketing competitions, received a ‘superior’ score as part of a JM team presenting at the UNC Learning Through Language Symposium and has been captain of the JM Women’s Tennis team.”
Andrew told the News + Record that there have been times where she’s been exhausted by her workload. On one night earlier this school year, she said, she had a long conversation with her mother, Silk Hope School Principal Angie Brady-Andrew, about being overwhelmed by her commitments. She left the conversation encouraged to push forward, saying she felt all the long nights of studying, performing, competing and more paid off.
“Every single one of those (nights) was worth it even though in the moment I felt like I couldn’t take anything else,” she said. “This has validated my choices and times that I’ve turned down other opportunities because I knew what I wanted to do.”
Andrew said she hasn’t finalized a major yet, but is leaning heavily toward clinical psychology to become a therapist.
While she’s waiting to attend UNC, she’s also crossing her fingers that she’ll be able to walk the stage at graduation. Jordan-Matthews, like all public schools across North Carolina, is closed and holding all classes online because of COVID-19, with major events like prom and graduation up in the air. Andrew said she’s learned to “appreciate the time more,” doing “random things” like watercolor painting, during the break.
“The first couple weeks were awful,” she said. “My friends and I threw ourselves complete pity parties. But I’ve started to learn to appreciate the time.”
Reporter Zachary Horner can be reached at zhorner@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @ZachHornerCNR.