Thomas Wolfe scholar

Thomas Wolfe scholar

Jenna Hall, a senior at Gray Stone Day School on Pfeiffer University's Misenheimer campus, has been awarded the Thomas Wolfe Scholarship from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Hall was selected by the Board of Advisors through the Department of English and the Creative Writing Program. The scholarship, which seeks to identify and reward students with exceptionally focused literary ability and promise, offers full financial support to one incoming freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill for four years.

The first of its kind at UNC-Chapel Hill, it was first awarded in 2002. Candidates are chosen based on their written work, which can include poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction and plays. The winner is selected based on literary ability and artistic merit.

The scholarship honors author and UNC alumnus Thomas Wolfe. Frank Borden Hanes Sr. of Winston-Salem, a novelist, poet and retired journalist who graduated from UNC in 1942, contributed $2 million to establish the scholarship.

Hall is the daughter of Russ and Rae Hall of China Grove. She is a member of the National and Spanish honor societies, Young Progressive Society, Book Club and yearbook staff. She is a junior marshal, editor of both the school's literary magazine and newspaper. She lettered four years in cross country, two years in swimming and one year in soccer.

She is a WSOC Outstanding Graduate who attended N.C. Governor's School West and Southern Piedmont Education Consortium camp. She was a semifinalist for UNC's Morehead-Cain Scholarship and was offered the C. C. Cameron Scholarship, a full college scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

She is active in her church and works part-time as a waitress. For her senior service project, she is raising funds and awareness for The Invisible Children, a humanitarian organization which aids refugees in Uganda.