California Hawaii Elks Association Scholarship Vice Chairman Jack Geiger led a distinguished group of 28 District Scholarship Chairmen and Past District Chairmen in the judging of 353 Most Valuable Student Scholarship applications. The judging took place in Atascadero CA over a two-and-a-half-day period in mid-February. The assembled group extended their best wishes to Scholarship Chairman Ray Broussard who had been hospitalized and was unable to attend.
One-and-a-half-days were spent reading and evaluating the 353 essays. Every essay was read and graded by no fewer than three different judges. The remainder of the judging involved reading and evaluating the many other categories of each application. There was a very thorough cross-checking by judges, assuring the accuracy of the scoring of every application. As quickly as information was gathered, it was passed-on to Charisce Williams and Cindy Mowrey from the Association office who worked tirelessly uploading data to computers as quickly as it was provided. The whole process was well organized and went smoothly.
On Saturday, the judges included West Central District Scholarship chairman Sean Pringle who received an Elks scholarship award in the 2010-2011 year. He is now a member of the Oceano-Five Cities Elks Lodge. Sean was warmly greeted by the group, then quickly put to work assisting at one of the judging stations.
In the final tally, 77 applications were judged to be winners at the California and Hawaii level and were advanced to Grand Lodge for judging in the national contest. Those 77 are guaranteed at least $1,000 per year for four years by Elks National Foundation (ENF) and will have the chance for the four-year award totals of $50,000, $40,000, $30,000 and $20,000 to be awarded to the winners of the Grand Lodge national judging.
Vice Chairman Jack Geiger instructing judges
By Andy Costello
Elks Grand Lodge Area 7 Membership
& Marketing Committee
Photo Credit: California Hawaii Elks Association
