Grace Elkus Senior Reporter
I am so glad I had the chance to interview Stacey Crutchfield, an Elon sophomore who is also an Elon Academy scholar. Stacey has lived in Burlington her whole life, and both sets of her grandparents are from Alamance County. None of Stacey’s grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles or older cousins attended college, so she never seriously considered applying.
Stacey told me she wasn’t motivated to try very hard in her classes her freshman year of high school. But when she heard about Elon Academy, she decided to fill out the application. She was one of 26 students accepted into the program. It was there she realized that college was more than just some “far off idea.” She began doing better in class and challenging herself in harder courses. She was also happy that the Academy included her family in some of the meetings, so they could understand how the program could help her apply to college and for grants and scholarships.
Stacey had never been interested in attending Elon because it was so close to her home. But when she was offered the Odyssey scholarship, which provided her with generous academic and social support, she knew she could not pass up the opportunity. Now that she’s a student at Elon, Stacey works with the Academy to coordinate the summer program and works with the younger scholars.
I was truly inspired by Stacey. She is extremely self-motivated and made me realize that so many of us take going to college for granted - an obvious next step after high school. I look forward to writing more articles for the Pendulum that allow me interview such motivated and passionate people.
Look for Grace's story about the Elon Academy in this week's issue of The Pendulum.