For FWCD Upper School seniors, the entire year is filled with excitement, nerves, and mostly good news. Earlier this month, the Davey O’Brien Foundation selected one of our seniors, Savannah Norman, to be one of five finalists for the $30,000 scholarship offered to an outstanding student athlete in Texas.

Although Norman’s selection is no surprise to the FWCD community, her humble nature through the process is worth noting. FWCD nominated her to receive this honor in October, and until now she has anxiously awaited the results.

In recalling the nearly four-month process, Norman reveals how professional and formal it has been.

“The application is very formal- nothing is online and everything has to be printed and mailed,” Norman said.

With all of the stress that seniors are already under to complete standardized testing, normal high school coursework, college applications, multiple essays, and play sports, adding any more additional elements into the mix can be very overwhelming. However, most seniors can attest to the fact that if anyone can handle a little extra work and pressure, it’s Norman.

In order to be considered a complete applicant for this scholarship, Norman had to complete two more essays, totally reformat her resume to meet the committee’s requirements, and send three teacher recommendations. The paper application determined the finalists, but the finalists then needed to be present at an interview with eight adults in order to determine which candidate is truly the most deserving of this prestigious Texas honor.

On the Wednesday morning of the interview, Norman approached the committee made of seven men and one woman with confidence and poise.

“I thought I would be super nervous during the interview but I was surprisingly really calm and comfortable,” Norman said.

The finalists find out if they receive the scholarship money in a large luncheon on Tuesday, January 19. Each finalist is allowed to invite nine guests to join them, and Norman chose her field hockey coaches Paige Chisholm ’87 and Chloe Anderson ’05, and US division head Bill Arnold and head of school Eric Lombardi, among others.

The finalists include Norman, William Caldwell of St. Marks School of Texas, Sage McAdams of Plano West High School, Seth Reine of Arlington Martin High School, and Raymar Turangan of The Colony High School.

The winner will be announced and then invited to an awards ceremony on February 15 and have the opportunity to meet and converse with other Davey O’Brien scholarship recipients.