Stuarts Draft Student Awarded First Annual Virginia Smiles College Scholarship
FAIRFAX, VA--The members of the Board of Directors of Virginia Smiles are proud to announce that Katie Higgins has earned the 2005 Virginia Smiles College Scholarship. Higgins is a graduating senior from Stuarts Draft High School, in Stuarts Draft, VA, and will receive the $1,000 award at the 2005 Virginia Smiles Family Picnic, to be held at Nottoway Park.

The Virginia Smiles College Scholarship awards $1,000 to a high school senior in Virginia who was born with a cleft lip or cleft palate, and who is planning to attend college.

Higgins was born with a complete bilateral cleft lip and palate, and is seen by the craniofacial clinic at the University of Virginia. At Stuarts Draft High School, she has successfully completed Advanced Placement History, Government, and Calculus, was a member of the Spanish Club, Family Career Community Leaders of America, the Model General Assembly, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In addition, she has been riding quarter horses for more than 12 years. Higgins was highly recommended by her high school counselors, and plans to attend the Blue Ridge Community College transfer program.

As part of the requirements for the scholarship, Higgins completed a 500 word essay describing why she deserved to be awarded the Virginia Smiles College Scholarship. "I am proud of what I have accomplished," Higgins wrote in her essay. "The most important thing that I am most proud of is the fact I was born with a cleft lip and palate and born into a great family that is full of support and love."

Higgins will receive the award, and give a ten-minute talk to families of children born with cleft lip and/or cleft palate, and other guests, that will highlight the accomplishments of her life and how she overcame the challenges of being born with a cleft lip/cleft palate.

Previous Virginia Smiles Scholarship Recipients:

2024: McKenna and Tess Cathey of Charlottesville, VA
2023: Rose Perkins from Abingdon, VA
2022: Benjamin Ray Rogers from Verona, VA
2021: Grace Hopkins Davenport from Midlothian, VA
2020: Lia Peach
2019: Jenna Lambert
2018: Jessica Elise Miller from King George, VA
2017: No award
2016: Curtis Bishop, George Mason University
2015: Kulie Nabers, Asbury University
2014: David Rieth, University of Mary Washington
2013: Michael Cox Jr, James Madison University and Anna Grishaw, Sewanee University
2012: Sam Rosen, Bowling Green state University
2011: John Mahaney, Shenandoah University
2010: No award
2009: Josh Duncan, Virginia Community College Transfer Program
2008: Kyle Speers, Eastern Mennonite University
2007: Maria Summers, Randolph Macon College
2006: Steven Richard Day, Virginia Polytech Institute
2005: Katie Higgins, Blue Ridge Community College Transfer Program

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