If a college offered you a full ride worth $160,000, how would you
react?  Would you cry for joy, start jumping up and down, or even run
around the room in circles screaming?  Connor McCormick, a USCHS senior,
had this experience on Thursday, January 16th, and he did none of
these, though his shocked face definitely expressed the three scenarios,
multiplied a thousand times.

When Mr. Markowitz and Mr. Eisenreich received the news of Connor’s
scholarship, they decided to give Connor a big surprise; Mr. E had the
idea to have the Jazz Band meet and play during school to “receive an
award” from Dr. Ghilani.  His plan worked out to perfection, as it
explained the presence of video cameras and reporters from KDKA, the
Trib, and various other Pittsburgh news companies, and Connor had no
idea what was in store for him.  After Connor played a solo on the
saxophone (which Mr. E secretly had him play for the reporters), Melissa
Sobek, the associate director of Saint Vincent’s admission office, got
up to speak in front of the Jazz Band and explain the true reason she
was there.

When she called Connor up to the front of the room to receive the Wimmer
Scholarship, his face immediately became awestruck; his later words
describe it best: “You can’t put it in words; it is pretty special.”

After Sobek presented him with an oversized check, his parents were
finally able to congratulate him after a week of keeping the secret from
him, and the entire family posed for pictures and interviews with the
news teams.  No one looked prouder than his parents, and they both
believed he really deserved it.

The Wimmer Scholarship, given each year to the best and brightest scholar
of St. Vincent’s application pool, entails full tuition, room, and
board to the top prize winner.  Each applicant for the scholarship is
required to have at least a 3.5 GPA and to take an entry exam featuring
topics as varied as writing, mathematics, and a combined section for
many different disciplines.  Connor thought that it was a “challenging
test,” and actually he did not believe he did very well at the time.  In
fact, he won.

In addition to celebrating the end of finals, the scholarship served as a
birthday present to Connor, and he “couldn’t think of anything better.”
He will be attending St. Vincent College next fall as a biochemistry
major, joining his brother at the college, and he intends to pursue
either medical or pharmacy school after college.

“Yeah it’s a lot,” he said, still shocked at having received the scholarship, and it will
definitely be a long time before he realizes the full scope of his
victory.