U. S. Constitution Scholarship Foundation
Submitted by Howard Pines, USCSF
May 16, 2017 8:32 p.m.
On May 11th, the U. S. Constitution Scholarship Foundation had its inaugural graduation ceremony. Attending the ceremony were students who participated in the University of US classes on the U.S. Constitution and their parents. In addition, also attending were the USCSF Board of Directors, Al Watson, Bill Amos, Jeff Murphy, and Howard Pines, the University of US Director of Operations Sharyl Wood, Judge Robert Foster, and major program contributors: Sue Braddock, Mike Bell representing Rayonier, Steve and Ginny Ardia. Also attending were University of US lecturers Judge Adrian Soud and Dr. John Baker.
All of the participants who passed the final exam on April 3rd were awarded Certificates of Graduation. In addition, 12 Juniors and Seniors competed for two $5000 scholarships based on a 2,000 to 3,000 word essay describing which Constitution Amendment they believed was most important and why. They had to support this opinion with factual data, research and reasoning discussing the arguments put forth at the time by those for and against the amendment and how passing this Amendment has affected our lives. An independent panel, headed up by Judge Robert Foster, Steve Ardia, Jim Flynn and Mary Brannen selected the two winners.
The winners of the $5,000 scholarships were Caleb Fahlgren, WNHS, who chose the 10th Amendment and Mitchell Kozakoff, YHS, who chose the 21st Amendment. The panel advised that since all the essays were so well done it was very challenging to pick just two winners. With that in mind, the USCSF Board decided to award the 10 runners-up each $250 scholarships. In this group were Brigitte Black and Scott Wardrop of Fernandina Beach HS, and Reilly Cassel, Jaelyn Guyton, Olivia Lanaghan, Madison Moore, Spencer Nguyen, Dillon Ricks, Julianne Shumake, and Allison Ventrone of Yulee HS. The next school year of the University of US will begin on Monday, September 25.