Aug. 17, 2022
Four students have been selected for the 2022 Hesburgh Scholarship, which is given by the University of Missouri's General Education Program to one student from each of the four undergraduate classes. Each student receives a $1,000 academic scholarship.
The recipients include Dani Davis, a junior from Bolivar, Missouri, Juliann Leak, a senior from Kansas City, Carlos Aleixo, a freshman from Porto Alegre, Brazil, and MJ Montgomery, a sophomore who is also from Bolivar, Missouri. The students were selected for this award based on their academic and extracurricular achievements, a letter of nomination from a teacher and an essay written about a meaningful academic experience.
Davis, who is majoring in special education, worked at a middle school teaching students with physical and intellectual disabilities as part of her curriculum. She said the experience provided her with a more personal connection to the students she had learned about in her classes.
“When you are in a classroom hearing about people with disabilities and just looking at the stats and symptoms, it’s hard to connect with them,” Davis said. “Being in the field you see they are fully developed people with lives and passions, and you no longer see a disability.”
Jim Spain, vice provost for Undergraduate Studies, said the scholarship aims to highlight the importance of general education by recognizing students who have excelled in their journey at MU.
“This award uses the stories of our students to show the importance of a general education that promotes a broad academic experience,” he said. “These students receive a scholarship that recognizes their academic excellence in their general education, but also their overall scholarly achievements.
