Teen who won scholarship at 6 using it to become a Red Raider

When she won her first scholarship, Roosevelt High School salutatorian Savannah Shultz's friends were far more impressed that she got her picture in the Avalanche-Journal.

Of course, it was a full-page spread.

And of course, most of them probably didn't know what a scholarship was. Shultz didn't. She was only a 6-year-old at Bowie Elementary School in Lubbock.

Shultz won the Avalanche-Journal's 2004 Make Kids Count $10,000 Scholarship Contest. There were no essays or grades to worry about, it was simply a series of drawings, and Shultz's name was the final one picked.

The most exciting part of winning at the time, Shultz said, was that her parents took her for a celebratory dinner at Mr. Gatti's.

"I had no idea" what it was, she said. "I knew that $10,000 was a lot of money."

But the scholarship put college in her mind, she said. Once she understood what college is, she said she thought, "This is really a thing I can do now, with a $10,000 scholarship."

She has worked hard in school, which is evident in her status as the salutatorian. She said she and valedictorian Ethan Walker have been competing for the top spot for years.

"One semester, he was ahead, and one semester, I was ahead," Shultz said. "I ended up being second, but I've worked super-hard on it."

With a 96.88 grade point average, Shultz will enter Texas Tech with 31 hours of dual credit under her belt. As a Red Raider, she plans to study marketing.

"If you can't tell, I love to talk," Shultz said. "I'm really interested in maybe going into sports marketing."

Her family remained excited about the windfall through the years, she said. When her great-grandmother Wanda Black passed away, Shultz said she found the newspaper clipping at her house.

"She still had the clipping on her refrigerator when we went to clean her house," Shultz said.

It's because of her family's enduring excitement that the A-J learned that Shultz has been so successful. Her mother, Theresa Shultz, wrote an email to A-J publisher Brandon Hughes to thank the paper yet again for running the contest.

In an interview last week, Theresa said 12 years later, she remains very grateful.

"It was a big deal," she said.

The process of going to several drawings for the scholarship was fun, she said.

"I thought it brought the communities together," Shultz said. "Savannah still knows some of those people from the drawing."

Theresa said the scholarship is a blessing.

"We for sure knew the significance of it, even if she didn't," Theresa said."We explained to her that she had so much more opportunity."

Theresa said the scholarship will allow her daughter to live in the dorms — she said she didn't know if the could have managed tuition and dorm fees without the scholarship.

Savannah Shultz also has received scholarships from the South Plains Telephone Cooperative, South Plains Generation Texas, South Plains Electric Cooperative and the Region 17 School Board Association.

"She's one lucky, smart cookie," Theresa said of her daughter. "She was neck and neck for that valedictorian spot. She worked really, really hard. So we are very, very proud of her."

Julia Childs, the A-J's marketing director during the scholarship contest, remembers Savannah Shultz fondly, saying that she warmed her heart.

"Savannah is just one of those one-in-a-million kind of girls," Childs said. "She was just such a treat.""

Each time her name was drawn, Childs said Savannah thanked her again and again, even though it was a random chance event and not something Childs could have controlled, she said.

"She sent a Christmas card to me, and she sent the sweetest thank you note," Childs said.

Although Childs retired in 2013, she said she still has the thank you note and a picture of Savannah in her box of mementos from her time at the A-J.

Source: Teen who won scholarship at 6 using it to become a Red Raider