U S Constitution Scholarship Foundation
April 28, 2022
Monday, April 25th at Yulee High School, The University of US, established by the U.S. Constitution Scholarship Foundation held its 2022 graduation ceremony. At the ceremony, University of US Director of Operations Sharyl Wood and UCSCF co-founder Howard Pines opened the ceremonies and congratulated the 47 graduates. Each of the graduates received a $100 award for graduating and 24 of them an additional $100 for submitting a qualified essay.
This year the essay competition topic asked the student to propose a new Constitutional Amendment. The essay should discuss the conditions that prompt the need for this amendment, the benefits of this amendment and any arguments against the passing of this amendment. The Essay Competition Committee included Judge Robert Foster, Judge James Daniel, Judge Jenny Higginbotham, Chris Bryan, Ron Blum and Ted Hissey. There were five winners with Fernandina Beach’s Christina Cortes’ essay rated number one earning her a $10,000 scholarship. In addition, Meredith Gelston of Lindisfarne Hall, Eva Burbo and Analise Kwiatkowski from Home School and Miriam Sancey of Yulee High school each won a $5,000 scholarship. Laura Cullen, a senior at West Nassau spoke about how the program impacted her life.
Representative Cord Byrd who with Judge Stephen Fahlgren lectures the students on the Amendments spoke about the importance of the Constitution and how the program will impact students later in life. Judge Robert Foster congratulated the scholarship winners and Natasha Drake, Director of the Secondary Schools for Nassau County closed out the ceremony and welcomed the guests to dinner. She spoke about the importance of the program to the success of the students. USCSF co-Founder Al Watson also handed out a commemorative “challenge” coin and spoke about what the program has accomplished in providing knowledge of our Constitution and heritage, plus approximately $200,000 in scholarships and awards since its inception in 2016.