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IF YOU’VE EVER WALKED THROUGH THE SOUTHWEST QUAD ON YOUR WAY TO TARGET OR FRAN’S, YOU’VE PROBABLY PASSED BY THE EVANS SCHOLAR HOUSE. BUT WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE SCHOLARS THEMSELVES?
[sound effect: golf swing]
HERE ARE THE BASICS: IN 1930, AMATEUR GOLFER CHICK EVANS CREATED A FUND TO COVER GOLF CADDIES’ COLLEGE EDUCATIONS. SINCE THEN, THE WESTERN GOLF ASSOCIATION HAS AWARDED FULL RIDE HOUSING AND TUITION TO STUDENTS WHO CADDIED IN HIGH SCHOOL. THESE SCHOLARSHIPS ARE BASED ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, FINANCIAL NEED, AND CHARACTER RECOMMENDATIONS.
AND WHILE EVANS SCHOLARS CAN BE FOUND AT 24 COLLEGES ACROSS THE COUNTRY, WITH PLANS FOR EXPANSION, NORTHWESTERN IS HOME TO THE ORIGINAL CHAPTER. LAST WEEK, I HAD THE CHANCE TO VISIT AND SPEAK WITH A FEW OF THE 38 SCHOLARS WHO CURRENTLY LIVE IN THE HOUSE.
[sound effect: another golf swing]
MADISON LEVSAY IS A FRESHMAN SCHOLAR. AFTER A LITTLE OVER A MONTH HERE, HER VERDICT?
[ML]: I don’t know what anyone else says, because maybe they’ve had different experiences, but I love this house… I have a house full of friends. Like, I love my roommate. I love, like, coming downstairs and just seeing whoever is, like, down here, I think it’s so silly and, like, fun and, like, I don’t know, it’s just really cute… I think it’s been really fun. Like, it feels like this is like my home, not like a dorm. So, like when like during Wildcat Welcome, it’s, you know, you’re out with a bunch of other freshmen you’re meeting people all day, blah, blah, blah. But then I get to come home and I’m with the people that I’m with the most often in life, basically a family.
MELANIE TAPIA, A SOPHOMORE, ALSO POINTS TO THE PEOPLE AS ONE OF THE BEST PARTS OF HER EVANS SCHOLAR EXPERIENCE.
[MT]: You can really rely on the community, the sense of community within the house. Like, if I ever need something, I can just like, walk up to somebody and ask them or I like when you’re like, trying to study with someone, there’s always somebody around to help you or even just to go to the dining hall. So it has a lot of that same communal feeling that you get in like residential life on campus, but it’s a bit closer.
THE AIR OF MYSTERY SURROUNDING THE EVANS SCHOLARS CAN LEAD TO SOME SURPRISING MISPERCEPTIONS, AS SOPHOMORE PEIGHTON HAZEL HAS FOUND.
[PH]: Ok, so I’ve heard that some people think that we’re caddies for the golf team, which is not true. A lot of people just know that we caddy, that’s like their baseline knowledge. Some people just see the building and don’t, they’re like, oh Evans Scholars and then they don’t know it and don’t know any people in the house. I know we used to have a little bit of trouble of being inside of a bubble. I think COVID like, perpetuated that a little bit more. But now scholars are starting to branch out and make a lot of friends outside of the house, which is great because we love seeing new faces around here, but it didn’t used to be like that, so not a lot of people knew who we were.
[ML]: We had a running gag at the beginning of the school year. Like, you know, like a tally of how many times you have to explain what an Evans Scholarship is. I think the people I meet, they kind of have an idea. They’re like, oh, it’s like the golf thing, right? And I’m like, yeah, it’s a golf thing and they’re like, where do you live? And I’m like, it’s a house on sorority row, but it’s not a sorority.
FOR MANY YEARS, NORTHWESTERN’S EVANS SCHOLARS CHAPTER WAS PART OF THE INTERFRATERNITY COUNCIL, DESPITE ITS CO-ED STATUS AND LACK OF RUSH PROCESS. AFTER MANY PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS, THE CHAPTER FINALLY LEFT THE IFC IN 2022 AND WAS RECLASSIFIED AS A STUDENT ORG. HOWEVER, THIS STILL LEAVES SCHOLARS IN A RESIDENTIAL LIMBO.
[MT]: Northwestern doesn’t really know what to do with us. There’s actually a really big disparity between how we live compared to residential life colleges because they don’t actually like, like involve us in, in residential life if that makes sense. So it’s like in very small ways, but it kind of like impacts our, like how we can like connect with communities outside of the Evans Scholars. So like to get into Willard, for example, like things that are open access, like, like the gym, for example, we don’t have access, but we are like south area, like our I.D.’s don’t scan into those places. So different amenities that are supposed to be included within residential life colleges, we don’t receive that.
[PH]: I lost my Wildcard the other day and I had to, I went to the Wildcard office to get a new one and they said that they couldn’t give me access to the Evans House because it’s a special building on campus. And so I had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get Wildcard access back to the house and it’s just like little things like that that are, that make it like slightly more inconvenient for scholars to live on campus.
THESE UNIQUE CHALLENGES, ALONG WITH THE FOUR-YEAR RESIDENCE REQUIREMENT, CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THE SENSE THAT EVANS SCHOLARS EXIST IN A “BUBBLE” ON CAMPUS, ACCORDING TO RYAN LACH, A JUNIOR SERVING AS CHAPTER PRESIDENT FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR.
[RL]: When it came time for the class of 2025, my class, to run for executive board positions, we wanted to be very deliberate about trying to make sure other classes got well-versed in stuff outside the house… I think it’s gotten better. We’re trying to kind of get out into the community, volunteer more outside of the Evans Scholars and with Northwestern, with Evanston and just kind of get the name out there so people so that we can kind of pop the bubble.
AS NORTHWESTERN’S EVANS SCHOLAR PROGRAM EVOLVES, ONE THING THAT REMAINS CONSISTENT IS THE SENSE OF KINSHIP WITHIN THE HOUSE.
[PH]: I mean, there’s still arguments and stuff within the house which is fine. But like having the people here that I know, like support me is super helpful and I feel like outside of the house, it’s harder to build that community with people that you know, so I’m glad that I just got like handed it on a silver platter.
[RL]: But I thought my freshman year, I was trying to imagine what it would be like if I lived in a dorm and I didn’t have this experience and I was like, I don’t think I would trade it for anything like what I have now, just coming in and this house is full of, I think the 40 best people on campus. No offense to everyone else.
FOR WNUR NEWS, I’M LARA CHOY.
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