Rice Scholarship Recipients Dauntless

Challenge spurs a reaction—one of either defeat or victory. For Zoe Watkins and Malieq Senior, two 2017 Austin High School graduates who have received the Rice Scholarship, challenge demands dauntlessness.

Zoe’s dauntless enthusiasm was sparked by her battle with liver sarcoma. She is now a 7-year survivor, but she didn’t always feel so strong. Even long after the liver sarcoma had been defeated, Zoe still struggled with the chemo affecting her brain. “They call it chemo-brain,” she says. “It makes my brain fuzzy, and it is super hard to concentrate for long periods of time—sometimes even a class period is too long.”

When Zoe’s grades started dropping, her parents offered to let her pull out of the advanced classes she was taking, but Zoe was determined to not only graduate from advanced classes, but also with honors. “Putting in the extra time was really, really hard,” Zoe says, “but somehow I graduated with honors. It’s a miracle.”

Zoe will continue her education at Spellman College studying Sociology and Religious Studies, and she’s committed to putting in the extra time there as well.

For Malieq, medicine also prompted his dauntless mindset. Except it wasn’t him battling cancer—it was his mom. “I decided on medicine because my mom has battled cancer twice,” Malieq says. “Seeing how medicine has helped her made me interested in that field.”

Malieq’s mom first overcame breast cancer, and is now undergoing surgery for thyroid cancer. Her two-time fight against cancer is empowered by men and women who dedicated their lives to medicine. “I want to help people like that,” Malieq says.

To do so, Malieq has enrolled in Bethel University, a small private university in Tennessee which offers a 4-year nursing degree followed by a 2-year Physician’s Assistant program.

Although studying for the nursing program will be time-consuming, Malieq will also have to share his time with his passion for football.

Right now, Malieq is funding his own private coaching from a personal football trainer using his graduation money. His personal trainer will focus all summer on speed and agility until he can join the Bethel University Wildcats in the fall. Malieq knows that the competition will be harder in college, but he’s ready for the challenge.

That’s what makes Zoe and Malieq dauntless: they are not afraid of challenge.

To challenge herself this summer, Zoe volunteers with other summer youth missionaries at the Neighborhood Christian Center, Morgan County System of Services, and Hospice of the Valley Camp Hope to share the love of Christ with children. They perform skits that illustrate character qualities such as self-control instead of anger, and then they play games and face-paint with the children to build relationships. “It’s been life changing,” Zoe says.

And that was the goal of Derica Rice when he started the Rice scholarship program—to change lives. Derica is an Austin grad who endowed The Rice Scholarship Fund in 2013. The scholarship is very specifically targeted for the students’ second year of college, encouraging them to continue their higher education.

Thanks to the generosity of Derica, the challenge of sophomore year will be greatly lessened for Zoe and Malieq. In fact, other Rice scholarship recipients have used their alleviated sophomore year to develop business plans and double up on credits to graduate early. Next year, Zoe and Malieq will face the choice of doing something great with their sophomore year.

And based on what they’ve already accomplished, I’m sure it will be nothing short of dauntless.