Cedar Hill resident and Bishop Dunne Graduate Monique McCullum has been awarded the Rose/Silverthorne Foundation Scholarship, which provides $4,000 a semester, renewable for four years. The scholarship pays all tuition, books, fees, room and board to an in-state college, up to $32,000.
Monique arrived in Dallas from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and has lived here in Texas with her mother ever since that devastating storm. “I was really little so didn’t realize how bad it was for everyone. But I remember staying in hotels.” St. Elizabeth’s took in 20 Katrina–displaced students, but only Monique stayed and graduated from there.
Her mother, Toni, was a first grade teacher in the Lancaster ISD up until last December, when she felt a little unusual and went to the doctor and learned she has bone cancer. Treatment for the cancer has left her with kidney failure and now on dialysis and unable to work. Then her mother’s apartment caught fire and burned at the end of the year. “We lost everything after Katrina, and my mother lost everything she had in the fire, so this scholarship is the best news we’ve had in a long while,” Toni said, “and we feel just so blessed by it.”
In her scholarship essay, Monique wrote, “Working with children brings me joy and proved to me that it is my passion. I have been a volunteer at Notre Dame School for Special Children, and through that I realized that this is the career path that I truly want.” She went on to say, “My parents’ divorce inspired me to become a family and child psychologist because of the effects it has had on me. I would easily be able to relate to the children I would be helping.”
Monique is thrilled to have received this renewable scholarship, which she learned about on May 26, a few days after graduation on May 23. “The gentleman who called me said he was sorry he couldn’t have let me known before I graduated so it could be announced publicly, but I told him it was fine – I’m just so happy!”
She will be roommates with Bishop Dunne classmate and 2014 graduate Claire Hawkins. A third classmate, Payton Hendrix, received a full scholarship to play football for the University. “Claire and Payton are my best friends, so we are all so excited that we’ll be together – again – for the next four years!”
All of Bishop Dunne’s graduates get accepted into college and Monique is one of 11 that have received full scholarships to college. More than 50 percent of the Dunne graduates receive scholarship offers from multiple schools. This year full scholarships were accepted by Dunne graduates to Ivy League’s Brown University, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Texas Tech, OU and Northern Colorado among others.
The school has academic and sports camps in June, for children as young at three years old. For more information on the school and summer camps go here.
Information provided by Judy Porter.