GUNNISON, Colo. — The Western Colorado University Honors Program and Athletics Department together are pleased to announce the Nancy Chisholm Honors Athletes Scholarship – a $5,000 scholarship to be awarded annually to two student-athletes studying in the Honors program. Bolstered by the generous Student First Scholarship match, seven $5,000 Chisholm scholarships were awarded for Mountaineer student-athletes in 2020-21.
Nancy Chisholm
Chisholm, a Western Colorado alum who is on the Western Colorado University Board of Trustees, is a senior global business executive with more than 20 years of experience in general management, functional and operational leadership roles. Chisholm spent more than two decades with Tyco International and most recently served as president of Tyco Retail Solutions.
I have always been impressed by the dedication and stamina of our student athletes who bring tremendous energy to the campus environment,” Chisholm said. “Our Honors Program is a Western gem, comprised of our most academically high-achieving students across all majors and disciplines. The intersection of these two groups makes up some of our most highly engaged student leaders who apply the same degree of discipline to their coursework as they do to their competition in Western’s NCAA sports programs. Many of these student-athletes demonstrate an incredible degree of commitment while navigating the added burden of financial stress and hardship, so it’s an honor to provide scholarship support to these Mountaineers who represent the very best of our campus community.
The Nancy Chisholm Honors Athletes Scholarship
The scholarship was created by Chisholm to inspire academic and athletic achievement at the highest levels at Western Colorado University, which are personified by the Mountaineer student-athletes studying in the Honors Program. To be eligible for the scholarship, a student must be a member of one of the Mountaineer intercollegiate athletic programs, a full-time continuing student at Western, own a 3.0 GPA or higher and be enrolled in the Honors Program.
The recipients this year were selected by a committee consisting of Western Director of Athletics Miles Van Hee and the Western Director of the Honors Program Dr. Kelsey Bennett in consultation with the Office of Student Financial Services
Miles Van Hee and I were thrilled to forge this promising new partnership between academics and athletics as we awarded these scholarships to some of our academically top-performing NCAA athletes in the Honors Program at Western,” Bennett said. “It was also great to see the wide range of sports represented by these outstanding inaugural scholarship recipients.
Van Hee agreed with Bennett’s sentiment.
We greatly appreciate the generosity of Nancy Chisholm for this scholarship opportunity for our student-athletes,” Van Hee said. “We value academics highly in this department and our student-athletes answered the challenge during the Spring term with a 3.36 GPA. These scholarship opportunities only give more incentive to our student-athletes to continue to raise the bar academically.
2020-2021 Scholarship Awards
For the 2020-21 school year, the scholarships were awarded to: Emilee Scates (volleyball), Casey Ober (women’s soccer), Gabriella Garcia (women’s swimming and diving), Taylor Stack (men’s cross country/track & field), Jessie Jacobsen (women’s soccer), Jacob McCarley (wrestling) and Hannah Mae Gigstad (women’s cross country/track & field).