Top scholars run in families

Presidential Leadership Scholars (left to right) Kelly and Leslie Hughes and Emily and Hilary Martens, all graduates of Missoula’s Sentinel High School

Presidential Leadership Scholarships are among the most prestigious awards presented by UM. Students earning one receive a four-year tuition waiver plus an additional $5,000 to $7,500 per year. Basically, it’s a full ride.

Most families would consider it an honor to have one Presidential Leadership Scholar, but four Montana families have each been blessed with two.

One of the first of these coveted awards went to Jill Price, who graduated from UM in 1994 with dual degrees in finance and accounting. She still lives in Missoula, working at a small financial planning firm.

Following in the family footsteps, her sister Gayle Price came to UM and used her award to double-major in economics and political science. Gayle, a junior, just completed an active year as Associated Students of UM president.

In another brainy family, Kelly Hughes of Missoula just graduated with a double major in English/creative writing and political science. She is bound for the University of Chicago to study civil rights law this fall.

The other Presidential Scholar in the Hughes family, Leslie, will join UM as a freshman this fall. A top-ranked student at Missoula’s Sentinel High School, the younger Hughes gained the attention of the scholarship reviewers with her many accomplishments, but stood out for her work in Sentinel’s Introduction to Exceptionalities Class, in which students teach special education students basic life skills. Hughes intends to major in journalism.

In another top scholar family, Shasta Grenier graduated in 2001 with a degree in English literature. She went on to earn her master’s degree in English literature at the University of British Columbia. She now lives in Bozeman, working on documentary films and doing freelance editing. Her sister, Liz Grenier, is a UM sophomore studying Arabic and volunteering in the Community Gardens. She hopes to study French her junior year.

Finally, Hilary and Emily Martins will have an opportunity not afforded other sisters — to be enrolled in UM’s Davidson Honors College at the same time. Hilary will be a junior in the fall, while Emily starts as a freshman.
Hilary, a physics major and music composition minor, soon will work with a plasma physicist at Mullard Space Science Laboratory in London, where she will assist with the Cassini space probe at Saturn, analyzing electron and ion data from Saturn’s magnetosphere.

Her sister Emily, another top-ranked Sentinel High student, hopes to major in elementary education.

" These eight Montana women are exceptional and embody the qualities required of our Presidential Leadership Scholars,” said Betsy Bach, interim dean of the Davidson Honors College. “They prove that sisters can share many things –—including academic talent."