Julia Hunt Endowment

Criteria

Swain County residents pursuing a degree at a university or college who have volunteer experience in Swain County.

NOTE: This scholarship uses the NCCF Standard Scholarship Application; however, applicants should be certain to address their recent volunteer experiences in their application essays and should also ask those providing recommendations to address their volunteer experience in their letters.

About Julia Hunt – In her own words

Why did your friends and colleagues decide to establish this scholarship fund in your honor?

Back when I owned Everett Street Diner, I hosted one to two fundraisers monthly for different organizations in Swain County. All I asked in return was that a group donate $25 of their profits to help me build a fund to create scholarships for any students that I had working for me that would be graduating that year so that I could help them with their college expenses.

The Swain County Community Foundation, an affiliate of NCCF, voted to donate one night’s profits from the mystery dinner that we hosted with the goal of raising $5,000 to start the Julia Hunt Scholarship, which NCCF manages. We raised over $11,000 and were able to give out the first $500 scholarship that same year!

What do you want students who apply for this scholarship to know about the fund?

The importance of community service. I want them to understand that one does not need to be rich to give. Giving of one’s time not only benefits the recipient. It also benefits the one doing the giving. I want them to “feel” the joy of giving and become life-long givers of their time.

What are your goals for this fund?

My goal is to ultimately have this scholarship be one of the most competitive to receive. I want there to be so many students participating in community service that the scholarship committee must struggle to pick the recipients!

My goal is for students to be excited about volunteering and for there to be so many students who are doing volunteer work and loving it that it becomes the thing to do. Helping others – especially those truly in need – can be fun and a great learning experience.

To learn more about Julia Hunt, read the article in the Smoky Mountain Times entitled “Julia Hunt: A Swain County gem.”