FCS Senior Selected as Stamps Leadership Scholar at Pitt

Friends’ Central senior Elise Foster has been named a Stamps Leadership Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh. After going through an extensive interview process, Elise is one of just five candidates out of 300 to receive this very generous scholarship.

In partnership with the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation, the University of Pittsburgh Stamps Leadership Scholarship award covers full tuition; room and board; an allowance for books and supplies; and an enrichment fund for study abroad, research, unpaid internships, leadership training, and other academic opportunities. Elise was thrilled to receive this prestigious scholarship. She commented, “I’m so excited to receive the Stamps Scholarship, especially to be chosen out of a huge pool of some amazing applicants.”

From the original 300 applicants, 60 are chosen to participate in Skype interviews. Twenty then go on to a series of interviews by the leadership team at Pitt. From that group, seven are selected to present to members of the scholarship board. Elise explained that her last interview was with the founder of the Stamps Scholarship, E. Roe Stamps. She shared, “In our last interview, we needed to discuss the leadership opportunities we participated in during our high school career. The whole interview process was a little intense, especially being interviewed by the founder, but Mr. Stamps made me feel relaxed. He really just wanted to get to know me, which was great.”

This year at Friends’ Central, Elise was co-captain of the Varsity field hockey team and a member of the Jazz Band, but the one aspect of her experience that she is particularly proud of and that the Stamps Foundation was very interested to hear more about was her participation in Strings. Strings is a craft club that Elise co-founded during her sophomore year where the members make bracelets made from string, like friendship bracelets, then four or five times a year, they visit Shriner’s Hospital for Children to work with the patients on the crafts taught in their club as a physical therapy exercise.

Next year, Elise plans to major in Rehabilitation Science. She explained, “one day, I hope to pursue physical therapy as a career. I also want to play club field hockey and continue playing music in jazz band.” As a Stamps Scholar, Elise also shared, “I am required to participate in many activities on campus such as Emerging Leaders Training, attending Leadership conferences and doing lots of community service. I am very excited for it all!”