The country’s first merit scholarship program has accepted an Arendell Parrott Academy senior who looks to be first in her class.
Logan Beyer recently won the Morehead-Cain Scholarship to UNC. She is also a finalist for the Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholarship of Duke University and the Trustee Scholarship of the University of Southern California — so the 18-year-old may face some additional options in the near future.
Beyer, a straight-A student at APA, has balanced her academic career with extracurricular involvement to supplement her course load, such as sports and mission trips. She’s taken the school’s 12 Advanced Placement classes to help prepare for her post-secondary educational future.
“I always thought school was fun,” said Beyer, who commutes an hour to Parrott from her hometown of New Bern. “As I’ve gotten older, it’s kind of been fun and then there’s a purpose to it too, because it can get you where you want to go.”
Her career goals include majoring in chemistry or physics, eventually leading her into medical school. Beyer will likely choose to minor in English, as she equally enjoys chemistry and writing.
While she is vice president of the senior class and president of Beta Club, she’s recognized around campus for more than her leadership roles at Parrott.
“She’s so engaging, it’s hard to believe she’s like that all the time,” said Mitzi Moye, student advisor. “She has an enthusiasm that is really contagious when she’s in a group. …When she’s in a work group, everybody works harder. It’s really fascinating to watch.”
Moye has travelled with Beyer overseas to Ecuador, which was one of Beyer’s most unforgettable moments in her community service track — a component notably evaluated for the Morehead-Cain program.
“It was so much fun,” Beyer said of the Ecuadoran trip. “I was running up and down the side of the mountain because I’d never seen a real mountain before. It was just an incredible experience to be there and realize you’re in that place so far from home and doing good for people you’ve never met.”
When she returned home from her first trip abroad last summer, she convinced her parents to let her make service trip. She wound up volunteering at a hospital in Guatemala for a week with a peer.
Beyer has also previously volunteered at a hospital in New Bern.
“She is truly a unique young woman, and we are all incredibly proud of her and her accomplishments,” said Terah Archie, Parrott’s public information and alumni affairs director.“I think she’s set an example for her peers to take advantage of everything Parrott Academy has to offer, whether its in the classroom (or) athletics.”
Beyer plays basketball and cross county, and she has been attending the school since second grade. She has a younger brother — a Parrott freshman – who commutes with her to school, which is often a chance for the siblings to “reflect” outside of Beyer’s busy schedule.
“I think the thing that is unique about Logan is her tremendous level of focus,” said Parrott English teacher Vicki Kennedy, who taught Beyer’s AP English class. “She is able to sustain her focus at all times. She also will really delve into a subject and just bulldog it until she finds out as much as she needs to know about it.
“I sometimes wonder when she sleeps, seriously.”
Beyer has transferred her seemingly non-stop academic and extracurricular activities into college preparation.
“I think getting ready for college is making the most of the time I have left here while also being ready for the new opportunities that are coming,” she said.
Her teachers and counselors said she makes can easily adapt to her surroundings, so they said she will excel at whichever campus she chooses. In fact, Moye said while Beyer has won a prestigious scholarship, it’s the colleges who will benefit from her presence on campus.
“I always think that things are going to work out,” Beyer said. “Sometimes you just have to have a little faith and trust that if you go to some place for the right reasons, things will happen the way they’re supposed to.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.
BREAKOUT BOX:
Logan Beyer, 18, has won the prestigious Morehead-Cain Scholarship to UNC
Parents: James Beyer, Duke University graduate; Kristin Beyer, Wake Forest graduate
Brother: Jackson Beyer, Arendell Parrott Academy freshman