North Marion Senior to Attend Top College, Despite Tough Times

By Jillian Daley

North Marion High School senior and FBLA President Grace Davenport found out this December that she’d been admitted to the University of Notre Dame on full scholarship — a great achievement for any student, but Davenport also overcame a great deal to achieve that.

Notre Dame is a private university in Indiana that U.S. News lists as 18th out of 443 national universities. This college has an acceptance rate of just 15 percent. Not only did Davenport earn a place there, she received a full scholarship through QuestBridge, which helps low-income students cover the costs of attending the leading colleges in the country. What’s more amazing still is that Davenport achieved all of this amid difficult circumstances.

Rebecca Davenport, Grace Davenport’s mother, explained that she has cancer and her husband’s health issues moved him to retire, but despite it all, her daughter still excelled. 

“All that she’s been through, that is a whole other level of achievement; she stayed focused,” Rebecca Davenport said. “Considering all this, she blew me away. We’re so proud of her. ”

Here’s a little bit more about Grace Davenport, in her own words:

What do you plan to major in and minor in at Notre Dame? 

I am majoring in Global Affairs and either dual majoring in or minoring in International Economics. 

Have you taken any college courses? If so, where did you take these courses and what courses did you take? 

By the time I graduate, I will have either taken or attempted almost all of the college credit classes North Marion has to offer and then some. I will have credits from three colleges and universities and high school credits from one more. [Her current classes include Calculus B and Honors English.]

Have any of your sisters or brothers gone to college already? How did their decisions influence your own? 

I have one brother and two sisters, with me being the youngest. Unfortunately, one of my sisters and my brother have severe learning disabilities and were not able to go to college, but my sister, Sophie, will be graduating this year with a degree in Political Science from Western Oregon University.

What are you looking forward to the most, and could you please explain why? 

I can't wait to study abroad again. [She previously studied in Madrid, Spain during the summer of 2022.] Lucky for me, Notre Dame has partnered with numerous colleges and universities in other countries, and I plan to be off campus more than on. While I am currently working on becoming bilingual in Spanish, I want to learn German and Japanese and study in countries where I could use my language skills and learn more about the culture.

What advice would you offer other students who would like a scholarship? 

While our school might seem large to us, it is relatively small compared to the schools of the students who most commonly win these kinds of scholarships. While this might seem like a disadvantage, it just gives us an opportunity to show that it does not matter where you come from. If you want something bad enough, you will work just as hard if not harder to get it, and go out of your way to grasp opportunities that those students did not even realize were advantages. 

While I started my academic career [in third grade] at North Marion with bad grades, unable to read or do simple arithmetic, I found something worth working hard for [attending college]. It is not the ones who want to show off to others or brag about their accomplishments that achieve their goals, but those who genuinely love what they do. They want nothing more in the world than the opportunity to push themselves farther and see where they might go. I love learning, and while I may not have been good at it from the start, here I am now. 

Thanks to QuestBridge, I can now take this passion and push it farther than ever before. While applying to a school through QuestBridge might be more complicated than applying to it normally, it gives students the financial capability to actually attend their dream school. Thanks to QuestBridge, I, and 80 other students, get to go to the University of Notre Dame debt free with a scholarship worth over $320,000. More money than most of us have probably ever seen in our 17 to 18 years of life.

Just seeing her daughter be accepted into college would have been thrilling for Rebecca Davenport, but at a top school at no cost creates a bright light of hope for the family during tough times.

“She works hard,” Rebecca Davenport said. “For her, it paid off. I’m thrilled for her. We are over the moon happy for her. We are blessed with two wonderful daughters who have achieved amazing things. Both are looking forward to a bright future."

To share story ideas on the North Marion School District, please email Communications Specialist Jillian Daley at jillian.daley@nmarion.k12.or.us.