To honor their grandmother in a most memorable way, two sisters have created a scholarship that will allow the legacy of their grandmother’s love of education to continue.
Charden Virgil and Charnise Virgil Moore both graduated from Columbia High School and together they created the Etta Pearl Weston Douglas Scholarship for $1,000, which is awarded to a qualified CHS senior.
The scholarship is for seniors at Columbia High School who have an accumulative grade point average of at least 3.0. Applicants must demonstrate a financial need as evidence in their free application in federal student aid form and enroll fulltime at a Mississippi college or university.
“We didn’t want to specify specific fields of study because we graduated from Columbia High School, and our parents are hard-working. We had that push from family to go and pursue higher education,” Charnise Virgil Moore said.
The sisters both realized that not all of their friends and families and others have the support or financial means needed to pursue higher education.
“We know Mississippi gets a bad rep (reputation) in the news compared to all of the other states, and Columbia is a very small town. We wanted to do something to encourage those students,” Charnise Virgil Moore said.
Growing up in Jamaica, Douglas was part of a large family. She had a desire to serve in the healthcare field and wanted to become a nurse. Unfortunately, her parents did not have the financial means to support her endeavor. Douglas married, worked as a waitress and had six children.
Eventually, Douglas and her children moved to the United States and became citizens, including the Virgil sisters’ mother. As a mother and grandmother, Douglas would stress the importance of furthering education to everyone.
“My sister and I, as well as the rest of my grandmother’s grandchildren, are all direct beneficiaries of her hard work and sacrifice,” Charden Virgil said.
Douglas passed away in 2005, but the sisters wanted to do something special to keep Douglas’ memory living on.
To apply CHS seniors must: provide an official or unofficial transcript with Fall 2020 grades; provide a copy of 2020-2021 FAFSA; submit a written essay addressing the following question: What are your college and career goals? (minimum of 500 words); and submit all application material to ettapearlscholarship@gmail.com.
The deadline to apply is May 7.
