Evans Scholars
 

Have any of you heard of Evans Scholars? I live just off of Ohio State's campus, and drive by a building that bears the name "Evans Scholars" on it all of the time. I always assumed it was some type of OSU scholarship program and that receipients lived in the building.

Apparenlty, it's a national scholarship program started for golf caddies.

Anyways, while I was surfing the web, I came across the OSU chapter's web page... it's listed with all of the university's fraternities and sororities, and they are the Theta chapter, which I thought was rather interesting. I wondered if any of you do have Evans Scholars on your campus & if so, if they participate in Greek Life there?

Here's the link if you're curious:
http://www.osu.edu/students/evans/

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SilverTurtle@greekchat.com

Phi Beta Fraternity
Phi chapter

I can't answer your question about other campuses, but to explain a little bit about Evans Scholars in general and at Ohio State.

Evans Scholars is in fact a scholarship program for golf caddies that excel in academics and meet a financial need.

The house at OSU operates like another fraternity. They are as much a part of the Greek Community as any GLO. They get paired for Greek Week, Homecoming, etc, and sororities have socials with them. The guys at OSU are really cool guys, and they are consistently ranked tops in scholarship. I think the only thing that really sets them apart in our system is that they do place such a strong emphasis in scholarship, which is really nice to see.

I am curious too about Evans on other campuses -- do you work the same way?

About three of my friends are Evans Scholars at Marquette University in Wisconsin. I don't know if they have anything to do with greek life, but i could find out :-D One thing about the Evan's House - its not just for guys, two girl friends of mine are Evan's Scholars!

At my alma mater, UofMich, our Evan's Scholars don't operate like (or with) the Greeks at all. They do have parties and stuff from time to time, but that's about it. I don't know much about it, but I've heard rumors that if you're an Evan Scholar, you have to stay in the house for your 4 years. Now, I have no clue if that's true or not, but if so, that kinda sucks. But they do have a nice house, so maybe it wouldn't be bad. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif I dunno...
Anyone else know anything about E.Ss, I'm curious as well!

[This message has been edited by ZChi4Life (edited April 15, 2001).]

We have Evans Scholars here at Miami University. They do stuff with other fraternities and sororities here (i.e. Participate in philanthropies with other greeks, etc.) unlike some other responses.

Thanks for your replies everyone! I think it's interesting that they participate in greek life since they aren't exactly the same thing. (Then again, that's not every campus. Just like GLO chapters are different at every campus http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif). And I had never heard of them other than driving by that house, so it's always fun to learn!

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SilverTurtle@greekchat.com

Phi Beta Fraternity
Phi chapter

We had Evans Scholars at the University of Illinois. A guy from my high school was in that house. I don't know much about them, but they were pretty active in the system as far as I remember. They also had a HUGE party every spring, with about 20 kegs. Since they weren't an "official" IFC house, they were allowed to have keggers at their house.

Benzgirl was just discussing Evans Scholars on another thread and I looked this one up to see what they were. This sounds cool! I love hearing about non-Greek groups, like the Evans Scholars and the spirit groups at Texas, that operate like Greeks.

Am I the only one who immediately thought of Caddyshack?

Ummmmmmmmmm....we had a Caddy Shack party at the Scholar's house when I was a junior. I don't remember much past maybe the fifth hole (fifth shot). Anyway, they were great guys and many of them were our house boys and servers, in exchange for their meals.

No. No, you weren't. :D

The Ohio State Evans Scholars are also in the process of building a brand new 8 million dollar, 3 story, eco friendly house at the moment too. It will hold 80 people and will be 30,000 square feet. It will truly be a sight to see when it is completed in December 2008

Here is the website for the IU Evans Scholars chapter. They have a house on North Jordan, where many of the other fraternities and sororities are located, and I think they participate in Greek activities with the other GLOs. Their chapter is coed but I am not sure if the women live in the house too.

There is a chapter at the University of Missouri and they live in the part of campus designated as Greek Town. There are also several girls in the chapter!

There are also several girls in the chapter!

Yes, I was just going to say that both men and women are eligible to be selected as Evans Scholars, so at many universities, both men and women are recipients and live in Evans Scholars housing. It is a fantastic scholarship program honoring students who worked as caddys who have excellent grades, activities and character.

Just to clear a few things up.

Evans scholars is reserved specifically for golf caddies, but is really hard to get. You have to be in the top 25% of your class (ok, thats not so hard) top academics, activities, leadership roles, get sponsored by your club, write essays, and go to many interviews. Basically, it's harder than applying to college. There are 14 chapters she says (my friend) and you can pick your top 4, they decide where to send you. But get this, its 4 years FREE TUITION. Yeah, FREEEEE, they pay 2,000 for housing, (which is less than ours living in a sorority house!) and they can go to schools like Northwestern, and Michigan.

I go to Missouri, I have a friend that lives in the chapter here. In this house there are about 35 guys, 9 girls (girls have their own floor/bathrooms) you live there all 4 years. That's all I know....I'm kinda jealous :(

p.s. they DO NOT caddy for college golf teams, they get pissed if you ask them that! haha

This is very interesting...I wonder whether they'd consider the in-state/out-of-state tuition factor when they place you. Also, do the Evans Scholars bypass the college admissions process. For example, I went to the University of Colorado, where I believe most of the Evans Scholars were from Colorado. But what if they put Northwestern as a top choice and Colorado as their 4th? Northwestern would be significantly more difficult to get into and more expensive than in-state tuition at Colorado...

The Evans Scholars house is in the University Hill district of Boulder, where most of the Greek housing it. It blends in with the rest of the fraternity houses.


On a side note, in Massachusetts we have the Francis Ouimet Scholarship for golf caddies and I think that it is up to $7,500 a year. They don't have a house, etc., as the Evans Scholars do, but it is a pretty respectable scholarship.

About 6 months ago, one of my friends (mother of 3 boys), was complaining about putting her kids through college. For some reason, I told her to sign them up for Caddy School (I was joking about Caddy School). Of course, she asked if there were scholarships for college.

Well, I told her about the Evans Scholars and how they served meals at our house in exchange for their meals. Next thing I know, she is printing off everything she could find on the Internet on the Scholars.
Seriously, her 13 year old just finished Caddy School and is signed up to work at the local country club this summer. Mom means serious business. She has the 7 and 9 year olds reading books on golf now so that they are ready for Caddy School in a few years. She won't show them Caddy Shack, yet.

I can't say enough great things about the Evans Scholars. They were the greatest bunch of guys, they were smart and were a lot of fun.

My brother was an Evans Scholar at Northwestern. I also have a cousin that was an Evans Scholar at Marquette. Both of them treasure their days as an Evans Scholar as much as any member of a GLO would. I can still remember going over to my brother's house, and meeting his "brothers" (at the time it was all-male, now they do allow women). They had parties, and house functions, and it was run just like any other fraternity except everyone in the house was on scholarship.

My brother was a golf caddy at a nearby country club. He was also an excellent student, and with three of us in college at the same time, my mom (father died) could not have sent us unless we all got finanacial aid.
Picture this, though- a fully-paid colllege tuition, with housing also covered. He was a houseboy in a sorority on campus for his food/board.
My other brother (a Phi Kappa Psi) and I had loans to pay back. The Evans Scholar did not. The Phi Kappa Psi went to a campus that did not have Evans Scholars, so he could not apply for the scholarship.

I have never heard either one of my brothers complain about being caddies. Evans Scholars Headquarters (located in Golf, Illinois) is near our family home. Now my brothers play golf instead of caddying. It has always been a win-win situation. The Evans Scholars are one of those little-known secrets in college life. However, I believe that it is now much more competitive than it used to be (sounds exactly like Greek life, right?). Tell your friend to go for it. Being a caddy teaches responsibility, something every kid should know about before he gets to college anyway. :)

Had no idea caddying was such a lucrative business.

Stevie Williams doesn't do too bad.

of course it is. Think about it- you are 16 years old and caddying at a country club for the summer. Who are you caddying for? CEOs, lawyers, Dr.s, other well connected people. You are a good caddy (and an even better person) and you form relationships with the members. They begin to request you as their caddy. You caddy every summer for 7 years, and you have "regulars". Those regulars might we willing to give you a letter of reference or a letter of introduction so when you graduate you have some fairly influential people behind you.

One of my college friends that caddied ended up doing an intership at the law office of one of his regulars and after law school clerked for another that was a judge.

^^^^ Agreed. I know so many caddies who became executives. During their experience they learn how to interact with adults far before their peers. They also need to dress appropriately (shirts with a collar that are tucked in, they are wearing a belt, etc). Their connections become invaluable when it comes to getting into a college and sometimes getting a job.

My dad often gets a caddy simply because he likes to walk the course and its getting too hard to carry the bag 18. He has written many recommendations for caddies who are trying to get into engineering school, particularly competitive ones (he is an MIT alum).

Also, some of the "regulars" will pay for the caddies to travel with them to golf tournies. Even though it's not Pebble Beach, the travel can be a great experience for a kid who is not even out of high school.

I'd rather pay twice the cost of college than be in the caddy fraternity.

I also don't know of a single exec who was a caddy. Perhaps you all use the word exec too freely.

There are so many benefits to being a caddy. As mentioned by others, the personal contacts alone make it worthwhile, not to mention a potential Chick Evans college scholarship. What is your definition of an executive? :)

Chief Executive Officer of a publicly traded company will do.

Several of my Evans friends went on to become surgeons and corporate attorneys. Even though some people would not call them "execs", it still indicates they are successful in their chosen career