Picking the Ideal Leadership Scholarship Candidate

The end of the year can be a hectic time for Gregg Amore. Each November, as the fall semester starts to wind down, the associate dean of students for student development spends countless hours combing through hundreds of essays.

Amore single-handedly reads each essay submitted for the Leadership Scholarship, a four-year, full tuition scholarship that is given to six students who have shown outstanding leadership in their high school careers.

“On the Friday after Thanksgiving [last year], I came down here, locked myself in the office, and just read all day. It gets intense for that brief period of time. Everybody waits until the last week [to apply] for some ungodly reason,” he says with a laugh.

But reading the essays is not the hardest part. That comes when Amore—the architect of the Character U program—has to whittle down the applicant pool from several hundred to just 30. He chooses five students in each of the six divisions to come in for an interview.

“When I get a candidate who’s been in these various leadership roles and there’s evidence that their classmates recognize them as a leader, their faculty recognizes them as a leader, their coaches recognize them as a leader, maybe people in the community, that’s the ideal candidate.”

Amore also takes part in the interview process and the final selection of the six winners. To him, the Leadership Scholarship has become an integral part of the admissions process and the University as a whole.

“I think it conveys a serious message about who we are, what we value, and, whether you get a scholarship or not, what your experience is going to be like when you come to this campus.”