Senior Brennan King is one of the 2025 winners of the Daniels Fund Scholarship. When he applied in October, he did not expect to be accepted, seeing as this is a very selective scholarship. He assumed he would get a rejection letter, but all his hard work paid off in the end.
The Daniels Fund Scholarship is one that is aimed at future leaders and students that are academically ambitious. It’s a full ride scholarship unless you’re going to college outside of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, then it’s $25,000 a year for academic expenses.
Throughout his high school career, King worked to get a good academic record in preparation for meeting the requirements his future might hold. As well as receiving good grades in all of his regular and college level classes, King was a captain of the Cross Country Team, President of National Honor Society, President of Jazz Band, and was very involved in Track and Field.
“I kind of panicked with the shock of making it that far, I knew I had worked hard to build the characteristics that would make me a decent candidate, but the idea of interviewing had been drowned beneath an ever present expectation of dismissal,” King stated.
As part of the application process, King needed to be interviewed. He expressed that he was very stressed leading up to the interview, but constantly answering practice interview questions led him to be successful and confident when asked important questions during the interview. He expressed gratitude for Rob Simpson and Jodi Breckenridge-Petit, who helped him prepare for the interview.
“I left the interview feeling like I could not have been truer to my values and was relieved all I had to do from there was wait,” says King.
After much anticipation, following the interview and application process, King was relieved to find out that he had been chosen as the winner of the Daniels Fund Scholarship. He remembers nervously anticipating his results with his mom.
“[After] a few minutes of a pounding heart and sweating palms entering passwords and following links, the word CONGRATULATIONS filled the screen with confetti,” King said.
King explained that the most nerve-wracking part of the application process was the few minutes between receiving the final email and opening the applicant status page. Despite this, King described that directly after receiving the exciting news he was overjoyed at the results.
“I kind of just broke down. I didn’t realize how much stress I had hiding in the back of my mind over the scholarship and to have it released all at the same time was overwhelming to say the least.”
He immediately made a couple of phone calls and hugged his mom. “It was nice to have some good news after receiving rejection messages from several other scholarships I had been waiting on. My parents took me out for dinner to celebrate.”
King’s best advice for students that are interested in applying for the scholarship is to understand the Daniels principals and values. He also gives the advice for students to take advantage of opportunities to serve others without an ulterior motive, such as volunteer work. He explains that people will want to support those who show interest in supporting others.
“Unlike my academic record, very little of the service work I have done in my life has been completed with any thought toward making a good resume or showing off. It made me feel good to help others and it just so happened that admission officers and scholarships took interest in that desire,” says King.
King would encourage others to stop doing community work in hopes of receiving some reward or credit and assume the habit of acting in selfless ways.
King describes that the Daniels Fund seeks individuals with strong character, and in saying that describes his gratitude to his parents and peers who instilled many of my habits and characteristics.
King explains, “The many applications you will fill out as a senior in Highschool help you discover what parts of your character are strong and what could use some cultivation…use your strong characteristics to your advantage and your weak ones as acknowledgment of imperfection and proof of your ability to grow as an individual.”
King is excited to be able to expand his education with the help from the Daniels Fund Scholarship and begin learning more about what he is passionate about.
King expresses an abundance of gratitude to the Daniels Fund for investing in his future. He will be going to Colorado School of Mines in the fall to study mechanical engineering with an emphasis in aerospace.
“I hope to find a career in the space development industry where I can graft my degree to my passions in a way that inspires the next generation to do the same,” states King.
SHS knows he will go far and cannot wait to see his post-high school life flourish.