Congratulations to Ridgefield resident, Sammie Watts, who was awarded the $100,000 ‘The House’ tuition scholarship on NBC’s Today Show this morning.
Sammie was chosen from a pool of 200,000 applicants as a finalist for this college tuition scholarship. Live this morning, she was greeted by The House actor, Will Ferrell and announced as the winner.
Sammie’s scholarship is from the upcoming film, The House, which is about the extremes parents must go to in order to pay for their child’s college education. Applicants were asked to respond in 500 characters to a question regarding why they think they deserve the award.
Sammie had been on the lookout for possible scholarships and decided to apply. In her application response, Sammie explained that her father had been undergoing esophageal cancer treatment through her early college years and that he is now in recovery. Approaching her third year at Ithaca College, Sammie hoped the scholarship money would help with the expenses.
Sammie told HamletHub, “I can't even express how grateful I am or how surreal this is. I didn’t think it was real when I first got the call to come in on Friday and I still don't even believe it now. All my friends and family have been so supportive this whole time and it's incredible, I'm truly blessed!”
Sammie, an RHS 2015 graduate, is excited to continue her studies in speech therapy and education at Ithaca College and go on to graduate school for a masters. Her end goal is to work with little kids in a preschool or elementary school. Way to go Sammie!