Senior Breelyn McMahon received the Prewitt Scholarship for a full ride (all tuition and room and board paid for) to attend Iowa State starting in the fall of 2018 to spring of 2022.

“I am in the intro to education class and they gave us a list of scholarships, and I started to apply and one of the committee members reached out to my mom and told her I should apply since I am going to Iowa State,” McMahon said.

McMahon decided she wanted to attend Iowa State in the summer of 2017 because she met some students at her camp that are going to attend Iowa State as well.

“The scholarship comes around like every five years and this year just happened to be the year that it came here so not a lot of people get it; it is only one person,” McMahon said.

McMahon will be majoring in elementary special ed and endorsing in special ed and reading.

“I will probably try to do intramural tennis and definitely Salt Company. Salt is a Christian program at Iowa State. They do retreats and worship. It is like a youth group for college students,” McMahon said.

In order to get the scholarship, McMahon was required to write a hardship essay about something she had to overcome and how it made her who she is today. If you pass the essay portion, you get an interview.

“It took two weeks to know if I got the scholarship after my interview. I just kept refreshing my email and then they pulled me into the conference room and all the people who are in the committee told me I got it,” McMahon said.

McMahon was shocked when she got the scholarship because she had never felt like a student who would get a full ride.

“Never give up on yourself. If you have a hardship you need to overcome, just keep pushing through,” McMahon said.