This Must Be The Place
MONMOUTH, Ill. – Chicago native Edrass Chavez was glad he was sitting down when he received a call from Monmouth College’s Erin Lafary.
Lafary, who is the College’s assistant director of admission and campus visit coordinator, told Chavez that he had received one of two of the Goldsborough Scholarships awarded to Monmouth’s Class of 2026.
Monmouth’s most prestigious scholarship, the Goldsborough Scholarship is a full-tuition, four-year scholarship worth more than $160,000 that recognizes outstanding students from the Chicagoland area who have consistently demonstrated academic excellence throughout their high school careers and who embody the mission and values of Monmouth, as evidenced by leadership, service, civic engagement and cocurricular commitments.
Chavez said he “just fell in love” with Monmouth from the first moment he visited the campus.
“When I got to campus, I just fell in love – it was so beautiful,” said Chavez. “It was a change from my city life, but there are still plenty of people around. The programs, the extracurricular programs and the education you receive are all very interesting to me. And the staff and the teachers are all very kind, and the students are so nice. When I visited the campus I thought to myself, ‘This has got to be where I want to go.’”
At Richard T. Crane Medical Prep, Chavez was a member of the debate team, the poetry slam team, a musical quartet and the Chicago choral group Musicality. Since April 2020, Chavez has been serving his mission with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“In terms of college, the only thing I’ve been thinking is, ‘I can’t wait to go to Monmouth, I can’t wait to start college. It’s going to be so much fun,’” he said.
Chavez plans to major in neuroscience,
“That’s what has been calling my attention the most, mainly because I want to be a pediatric neurosurgeon, so I think that’ll set me up for the most success when I go to med school,” said Chavez.
The Goldsborough Scholars program honors former Monmouth Board of Trustees Chair William J. Goldsborough, a 1965 Monmouth graduate, and his wife, Beverly.
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