Senior Elkin among the class of 2026 of the Morehead-Cain Foundation

This fall, 75 new Morehead-Cain Scholars from across North Carolina, the United States, and the world will begin their undergraduate careers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill). The Class of 2026 includes:

41 North Carolina scholars

34 scholars from other US states and territories

· 10 international researchers from Canada, India, South Sudan, United Kingdom and Vietnam.

Chandler Ann Beals of Elkin High School is among 75 new scholars chosen for the program. Beals will graduate this spring and report to UNC-Chapel Hill in the fall. In high school, Beal served as student body president, president of the Interact club, and co-captain of the women’s varsity soccer team. She co-founded and leads the Speech and Debating Club and has competed in college tennis, cross country, basketball and soccer. Beals is dual-enrolled at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and spent the summer before her senior year studying Arabic on a scholarship from the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y). Outside of school, she is an outreach coordinator for the ESL Opportunity Project, which matches high school English learners around the world with language partners in the United States, and is an active member of the First United Methodist Church. of Elkin. In his spare time, Beals enjoys playing guitar, reading, and running long distances. In Carolina, she wants to pursue global studies. She is the daughter of Lisa and Frank Beals of Elkin.

“The best part of the program is the wonderful community I have already found; people from all walks of life willing to support me and push me out of my comfort zone to be the best version of myself. I plan to take a year off on the scholarship and then enter UNC Chapel Hill in the Class of 2027,” Beals said.

Morehead-Cain brings together a thriving cohort of thinkers, leaders, dreamers, creators, and adventurers, and equips them with the tools to unlock their potential. In addition to fully-funded study at one of America’s leading public research universities, scholars have access to a network of peers and mentors, challenging internships and summer experiences, and the opportunity to travel. worldwide.

“Morehead-Cain identifies, accelerates and connects the most promising young leaders from all walks of life,” said Chris Bradford, President of the Morehead-Cain Foundation. “We are proud to welcome another class of young leaders who embody a rare combination of potential, principle and purpose.”

Morehead-Cain Scholars regularly win distinguished national and international scholarships for postgraduate study, including the Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford and the Gates Cambridge Scholarship at the University of Cambridge in England; the Luce, Marshall and Truman scholarships for study abroad and at home; the Knight-Hennessy Fellowship from Stanford University; and the McCall MacBain Fellowship from McGill University in Canada. In 2021, for the first time in UNC-Chapel Hill history, three students – all Morehead-Cain Scholars – won the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship in the same year.

The Class of 2026 joins a community of more than 3,300 Morehead-Cain alumni across the world. Since its inception in 1945, the Morehead-Cain program has been a model for countless merit scholarships across the United States. These include the Jefferson Scholars program at the University of Virginia, the Benjamin N. Duke Scholars program at Duke University, and the Woodruff Scholars program at Emory University.