Over $800,000 in college scholarships were handed out to graduating Columbia High School seniors at Thursday night’s awards program in the local high school’s auditorium. For the second consecutive year the Columbia Historical Museum awarded two seniors who will be receiving their high school diplomas at Columbia High’s graduation ceremony at Griggs Field Thursday, May 23, 2024.
Randy Womack and Laura Sue Womack Karl, the children of the late Bill Womack and grandchildren of Bill’s mother, Emma Womack, took the stage this past Thursday night, May 16th, to hand out the West Columbia museum’s Emma Womack Scholarship and Bill Womack Scholarship to Schylar Lavender and Reese Cantrell, who were selected from scholarship applicants by the Columbia Historical Museum’s scholarship committee.
Each of the Columbia Historical Museum’s two college scholarships, named in memory of Emma Womack and her son Bill Womack who were both instrumental in getting West Columbia’s museum up and running over 30 years ago, are valued at $1,000.
Scholarships were first awarded to Columbia High School seniors last year by the Columbia Historical Museum Board of Directors. The 2023 museum scholarship recipients were Taryn Fojtik and Jamarcus Higgins.
Schylar Lavender plans to attend San Jacinto College following graduation from Columbia High School. Her initial plans are to be a Diagnostic Medical Sonography major. Schylar was on student council all four years at Columbia High, was involved in PALS and PEER tutoring, was a Roughnecks varsity cheerleader and was Columbia High School’s Brazoria County Fair Queen candidate. She made academic all-district in varsity soccer as a Lady Roughneck athlete.
Reesie Cantrell’s plans are to be an elementary education major at Texas A&M University. Her mother is a teacher in the Columbia-Brazoria School District. She is a National Honor Society member who was student council parliamentarian at Columbia High and served as vice president of her high school’s FFA program her junior year.