Antonette Willa Skupa Turner Scholarship
Scholarship Sponsored by Willa Cather Center
Overview
The Antonette Willa Skupa Turner Scholarship provides a one-time financial award to a Nebraska high school senior who intends to begin college as an English or History major at an accredited college or university. Candidates are evaluated primarily on intellectual promise, creativity, and personal character.
Background
The scholarship commemorates Antonette Willa Skupa Turner, the granddaughter of John and Annie Sadilek Pavelka—real-life models for Anton and Ántonia Shimerda in Willa Cather’s My Ántonia and for Anton and Mary Rosicky in her short story “Neighbour Rosicky.”
Award Details
- Amount: $1,000 (single payment at the start of the recipient’s first year of college).
- Renewal: This award is not renewable.
- Number awarded: One recipient each year.
- Application deadline: February 28 (annually).
Eligibility
- Must be a current high school senior who graduated from a Nebraska high school and who will be a first-year college student.
- Must plan to major in English or History at an accredited college or university.
- Selection emphasizes demonstrated intellectual promise, creativity, and character.
Application Checklist (required)
Include all of the following with your submission:
1. Official high school transcript.
2. A letter of recommendation from an English or History teacher.
3. The completed four-page application form.
4. An original essay of approximately 1,500 words (see Essay Requirements).
Essay Requirements
Write an original essay of about 1,500 words on either Willa Cather’s novel My Ántonia or her short story “Neighbour Rosicky.” You may adapt a previous essay you have written, provided it meets the following conditions:
- Support your observations with occasional quotations from the selected Cather text(s) and cite the page number for each quotation.
- On a Works Cited page, list the exact edition of the Cather work you used, formatted according to MLA style.
- Assume the readers are familiar with the works; do not include plot summary.
- Give your essay a title.
- The scholarship recipient will be invited to read their essay at the Willa Cather Spring Conference in Red Cloud, which takes place each year on the first weekend in June. Details about presentations will be provided to awardees.
Contact and Submission
(Provide submission instructions or contact information where the application should be sent—if applicable.)