2026 Scholars and Leadership Award Announcement
The Sunflower Initiative is pleased to announce the 2026 Harriet Fitzgerald Scholars, Mattie Ray and Emma Lindsey, and the 2026 Elizabeth Gordon McCrodden Award recipient, Amelia Laing.
Mattie Ray will attend Hollins University as a 2026 Harriet Fitzgerald Scholar. A National Merit Commended Scholar at the Episcopal School of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Mattie was President of the No Place for Hate Social Justice Club and True Colors, a diversity club; Editor-in-Chief of the Literary Magazine; and member of the National Honor Society. She was recognized by the Baton Rouge State Fair Foundation with Outstanding High School Volunteer Award. For her Senior Thesis, Mattie spent two years researching the power of language and persuasion in politics concluding with a presentation to the school entitled “Crisis and the Collective: How Leaders Use Rhetoric to Mobilize the Masses.”
Her teachers praised the high quality of her academic work and her “resilience in adversity, growth through challenge, and leadership rooted in empathy and action.” In her essay, Mattie draws a connection between her interest in fiber arts, particularly knitting, and the experience she hopes to find at a women’s college. “In the same way that each stitch contributes to the strength of a whole scarf, each woman in a women’s college contributes her own voice, experiences, and wisdom to the college as a whole. I want to learn in a college where discussion with women’s voices and sisterhood are built into the fabric of the institution.”
Emma Lindsey will attend Bryn Mawr College as a 2026 Harriet Fitzgerald Scholar. Emma graduated from the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies in Richmond, Virginia.
She has served as Co-President of the History National Honor Society and the National English Honor Society which include responsibilities for planning speaker events and organizing tutoring opportunities. As a Youth Councilmember with the League of Women Voters, she produced a youth civic engagement podcast to increase civic engagement and voter turnout among younger and minority youth. Her interests include stained glass art, dance, writing, studying Arabic, speech and debate. Emma’s school team placed 2nd at the National awards for We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, which is a constitutional studies elective with “a curriculum covering the history and principles of constitutional democracy.
A teacher describes Emma as “exactly the kind of young woman the Sunflower Initiative seeks to support: intellectually curious, reflective, purpose-driven, and poised to thrive in a women-centered academic environment that values voice, leadership, and community.”
Emma describes her reasons for attending a women’s college, “I want to attend an institution which allows me to explore these hidden historical narratives, not because they are women, but because they are instrumental in shaping the more commonly-told narratives of their husbands, brothers, and fathers. . . . . Rather than a fun occasional addition to history, literature, mathematics, and science, women’s colleges emphasize women as an inextricable fraction of the whole.”
Amelia Laing will attend Wellesley College as the Elizabeth Gordon McCrodden Award recipient. Selected for her unusually strong leadership and determination, Amelia is the first McCrodden scholar to receive an award commensurate with the Harriet Fitzgerald scholarship of $10,000 a year, renewable with continued high academic performance.
Her teachers at Ballard High School in Seattle praise her academic achievements as a College Board AP Scholar with Distinction. They commend her “strong communication skills and personal resilience” and the unique perspective she brings to her classes and community as a blind student. Amelia founded the Disability Student Union, created school presentations to promote disability awareness and helped organize “Stronger Together,” a conference for blind youth sponsored by the Department of Services for the Blind. She advocated for legislation for students with disabilities while serving on the Youth Leadership Board for the Washington League of Education voters and was selected by the Lt. Governor’s office for Boundless Washington Outdoor Adventure and Leadership Program. She was the first blind high school intern to work at Fred Hutch Cancer Center in a bio-chemistry lab in a collaborative partnership with DSB (summer 2025). Amelia has been a member of the Northwest Girls Choir since 2016, serving on the equity committee and a choir council.
Amelia’s goal to major in chemistry and become a professor and researcher in a STEM field influenced her choice of a women’s college. She recognizes the value of the uniquely supportive community of a women’s college. “I will benefit from the support of professors and other women in a community that is more collaborative than competitive. Having the support of other women will be helpful because they will better understand the experiences of being marginalized. . . . After graduation, I will be connected to a large group of alumnae who care about helping one another succeed.”