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Grayson Elliott and Wesley Coatney Awarded the Morehead-Cain Scholarship by Josie Armes

Photo Creds: Morehead-Cain Scholarship website



Each year, around 2,000 students apply for the Morehead-Cain scholarship, but only around 50-75 of those applicants receive the scholarship. This year, two Watauga students, Wesley Coatney and Grayson Elliott, were awarded the scholarship to fund their educational pursuits at UNC Chapel Hill.


The Morehead-Cain Scholarship is a merit-based scholarship that evaluates everything from academics to extracurriculars to athletics to leadership positions. The scholarship provides a full-ride scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill. The application is incredibly intensive, and there are multiple rounds in the selection process. The initial application was due on October 1, with subsequent interview rounds following to narrow down the applicant pool. Elliott and Coatney were both awarded this prestigious scholarship at the end of January. 


“The application process ‘began’ 4 years ago, and Wes and I have both worked extremely hard throughout high school,” said Elliott. “The people who want to be competitive for this are probably people who have worked very hard throughout high school.”


Not only does the prestigious scholarship look at high school grades and activities, it analyzes who the applicants are outside of school and where they fit into the community. Wesley Coatney focused his application on his connection to Appalachia and family. 


“A lot of what I talked about in my application and interviews was my connection with the Appalachian culture in the area, and that goes back to the youngest version of me picking up my first fiddle at age 6,” Coatney said. “I have been building up who I am for so long and trying to be true to myself, trying to do things I enjoy, pursuing what I want to pursue, and not being limited to what I think is going to look good to colleges.”


Both Coatney and Elliott maintained a high level of academic rigor throughout high school but also pursued their passions. 


“I don't have to take AP Biology if I want to take choir, and even though, yes, biology is going to be much more rigorous, singing is something that I'm super invested in and something that I enjoy,” Coatney said. “I think that it has been important to build up my true self rather than being dictated by others.”


After making it through the first few rounds of narrowing the applicant pool, there came the semi-finalist interview round. This round of interviews gave the applicant 90 seconds to prepare a response to a given question and 90 seconds to answer.


“Making sure you spoke about something different for every aspect of the question and then, at the same time, making sure that you tied all the questions together so that they weren't these different islands” were the most critical tools for this round, Elliott said. 


However, the extensive initial written application left little to be discussed, so it was up to the applicants to build upon what had already been said.


“For the semi-finalist interviews, I had a list of topics that I wanted to talk about,” Coatney said. “I was hoping that their questions would target some of these topics and activities that I do so that I can tell them more about me and give them an honest reflection of who I am.” 


Being awarded the Morehead-Cain scholarship represents the culmination of 4 years of hard work and sacrifice for each person receiving the scholarship.


“It's really relieving for me that I believe that I was true to myself all through high school and yet it still worked out for me: in the end, being awarded the Morehead-Cain scholarship,” Coatney said. “Everything sort of aligned for me in a way that I'm proud of myself and proud of my accomplishments.” 


The journey to the scholarship was incredibly long and arduous for the applicants, but incredibly rewarding. As the class of 2025 enters their senior year, there are many scholarships and applications to think about, and the Morehead-Cain is an incredible opportunity that paves the way for a bright future. 


“We were true to ourselves, and the Morehead-Cain is the tip of the iceberg,” Elliott said. “Everything that you can't see under the water is the sacrifice, the hours spent late at night studying, the saying ‘no’ to friends.” 


Watauga’s Morehead-Cain scholars display a level of discipline difficult for anyone to achieve and one that is particularly commendable at the high school level. These students now know that their discipline has offered them educational opportunities that will benefit them for the entirety of their careers and lives.

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