Alyx Allred, a senior at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, won a $3,000 scholarship in the Thea Foundation Scholarship Competition.
Allred placed seventh in the Creative Writing category for her short story “Universal List” and received the Rebsamen Fund Scholarship. The theme of this year’s competition was “Reflection/Refraction.” Thea Foundation awarded $219,000 in scholarships to 36 students in five categories: Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Creative Writing, Film and Fashion.
The annual competitions are for Arkansas graduating high school seniors and remain a key resource for helping young people across the state receive financial help for higher education. Each of the five arts-based competitions provide Arkansas seniors with an opportunity to secure funding for college based on their talent alone. The organization’s first scholarship was awarded in 2002, and Thea Foundation has awarded more than $2.4 million in scholarships to Arkansas students since then, according to the foundation’s website.
“We are honored to enjoy talent from across the state, and grateful for the donors, students, teachers, and families that make this competition possible,” said Thea Foundation Executive Director Nick Leopoulos in a release.
Allred of Harrison said earning the award felt validating for herself as well as her fellow students.
“I never thought my writing would be useful or that I even had the skills to something with it,” Allred said. “So many of my peers are talented in the arts, and I’m happy there’s a scholarship that brings attention to and gives awards for those skills.”
Allred’s short story was a good match for the competition’s theme. “Universal List” reflects on what many of us consider a modern lifestyle.
“Since I was young, through social media I’ve been exposed to different ways to better my life or self, and I can imagine it’s the same for many people in this day and age,” Allred said. “I wanted to portray that repeating cycle of ‘I should exercise more, I should eat better, I should work on this, etc.,’ how difficult it is to keep up with those things, and the feelings of inadequacy that can arise from failure to maintain those goals.”
Her love of reading inspired Allred to try to start writing.
“Since I was a child, I loved reading,” Allred said. “I read during class, stayed up to finish chapters and would read multiple books at once. It wasn’t just a hobby but a comfort to get lost in a different world whenever I felt stuck in mine. It was only a matter of time before I decided I wanted to invoke the same passion for reading in others and started writing.”
Allred said she plans to major in biology with a minor in East Asian Studies in college, “but it is also my dream to write and publish a book at some point in my life.”