Kelli Knepp, a sophomore honors scholar at Northeast Texas Community College, was recently named the 2014 recipient of the $200 Chitsey Prize. This yearly prize is given in memory of Elizabeth Chitsey, whose daughters and grandchildren have had a far-reaching effect on Northeast Texas as educators and supporters of regional education on all levels.
The prize is unique in its efforts to identify a rising young scholar. It has been bestowed to honors students entering their sophomore year at NTCC who did not begin the preceding year as a Presidential Scholar.† Last year?s winner, Stephen Milburn went on from the Chitsey to a Phi Theta Kappa Star award, and a Jack Kent Cooke scholarship.
Knepp has maintained a 3.8 GPA at NTCC while being elected into honors and becoming a Phi Theta Kappa vice president.† She is a member of the executive committee of the 2014 Honors Northeast film project.† †For this, she performed research in Austin this past summer which supplied the findings for the upcoming Honors Northeast film on Harriet Potter Ames, Texas lake country pioneer.† She also researched a ?Harriet alter-ego? Henrietta Embree, another Texas pioneer, and will appear in the film as the Embree character she researched.
Knepp is a resident of Linden and the daughter of Tim and Becky Knepp.
