2015 Scholarships Awarded

On June 5, the Willa Cather Foundation honored its 2015 scholarship recipients. In addition to awarding the Norma Ross Walter and Antonette Willa Skupa Turner scholarships, a new program provided five high school educators with a complimentary registration for the 60th annual Willa Cather Spring Conference.

Madeline Warrick of Hastings High School was honored with the Antonette Willa Skupa Turner Scholarship. Recipients of the Norma Ross Walter Scholarship included April Bayer of West Point-Beemer High School; Deidre Freitas of McCool Junction High School; and Madeline Luehr of Wood River High School.

Educator Scholarship recipients were Brother Jeremy Dominc of Necedah, Wisconsin, who teaches junior high and high school English at Queen of the Holy Rosary School; Sherri Hoye of LaVista, Nebraska, who Teaches 9th through 12th grade English at Skutt Catholic High School in Omaha; Pamela Vap of Hastings, Nebraska, who teachers junior high and high school English at Silver Lake in Roseland; Bill Ford of San Francisco, California, who teaches at risk youth in an urban high school in San Francisco; and Roxanne Whiting of Gothenberg, Nebraska, who teaches high school English and "Survey of Nebraska Authors" at Gothenburg High School.

The scholarship award recognition took place as part of the 60th annual Willa Cather Spring Conference. Each of the four student scholarship finalists, having graduated from a Nebraska high school in May, delivered an original essay on Cather's work, written as a part of the scholarship's extensive application process. This event is a time-honored tradition and always appreciated by the Conference attendees.

Since 1987, the Willa Cather Foundation has awarded over 45 scholarships totaling more than $156,000 through the Norma Ross Walter Scholarship and Antonette Willa Skupa Turner scholarship programs.

The Educator Scholarship was a new program launched by the Willa Cather Foundation in 2015 to facilitate a dynamic exchange of ideas between Cather scholars and high school educators, upon whom we rely for our next generation of Cather readers.

The Norma Ross Walter Scholarship fund was established through a generous bequest from Norma Ross Walter. A lifelong fan of Cather’s work and frequent visitor to Red Cloud, Walter was a firm believer in education for young women.

The Antonette Willa Turner Scholarship fund was established in 2012 by Antonette Willa Skupa Turner, granddaughter of Anna Sadilek Pavelka. The scholarship honors Anna Sadilek Pavelka, the prototype and inspiration for Antonia Shimerda Cuzak, the major character in Cather’s novel My Ántonia.

The scholarship winners and the Willa Cather Foundation owe a debt of gratitude to the generous supporters who make these awards possible. Our scholarship efforts, directed by long-time Board of Governors member Virgil Albertini, are a fundamental part of our educational mission.