Full-ride scholarship honors alumni, supports incoming student writers

In 1920, Thomas Wolfe worked as the Editor-In-Chief of The Daily Tar Heel during his undergraduate years at UNC. Unbeknownst to him, nearly a century later, a scholarship would be created in his name to support incoming students pursuing the same literary passions.   

The Thomas Wolfe Scholarship began in 2002, with the funds for the scholarship endowed by UNC alumni Frank Borden Hanes Sr. to honor Wolfe's legacy and support incoming students. The scholarship provides a full-ride for all four years at the University, along with a $5,000 stipend every summer to spend furthering recipients' literary endeavors. 

“He’s kind of a native son of North Carolina,” the scholarship's 2023 recipient Elisa Troncoso said, describing Wolfe’s legacy at the University. 

Wolfe’s breakthrough novel, "Look Homeward, Angel," is a semi-autobiographical book which recounts his coming of age in North Carolina. 

“I think Thomas Wolfe was very passionate about the South specifically as a place of intellectual activity, and North Carolina was a place where creation was always happening and our artists and creators were working," Troncoso said. "And he was also very, very, very attached to his memory of Chapel Hill."

This year, the scholarship was awarded to 19-year-old Jonas Laukoter, who said he originally planned to study computer science for the financial benefits. Laukoter said the scholarship helped him realize he needed to stay true to himself as an artist.

“I definitely feel like my life has changed,” he said.

Although he still plans to pursue a degree in computer science, Laukoter is additionally studying English and comparative literature with a minor in creative writing.

Inspired by a clause in the scholarship contract which stated that, due to financial reasons, scholarship recipients can not get married nor have children during their four years receiving the funds, Laukoter said he is currently writing a semi-autobiographical story that explores how his life would change if he were responsible for raising a child.

“It makes me acutely aware of how I'm living in a place that is raising the future generation,” he said.

While Thomas Wolfe came from a family that helped fund his education, not all aspiring writers have enough money to support their endeavors. Troncoso said she credits this scholarship for recognizing the literary talent in young people who otherwise would not have had the ability to attend college.

“I know I wouldn't have been able to afford to go to UNC at all if I hadn't received this scholarship,” Troncoso said.

Serene Almehmi, a 2022 Thomas Wolfe scholarship recipient, said that while she is grateful for the funding UNC has placed into liberal arts programs, she is concerned over the growing trend of colleges across the country defunding humanities programs.

“We are here to learn and expand our horizons, and to actually gain insightful knowledge and see more about other people,” Almehmi said.

The existence of the Wolfe scholarship should provide hope to young writers because it shows that there are still avenues for young people to enter the “world of creation,” Troncoso said.

“I think this scholarship is the kind of thing that serves an incredibly essential purpose, especially right now, while we watch literature and the arts and humanities just defunded and destroyed and broken down in universities across the country,” she said. 

The world still desperately needs artistic minds, Troncoso said.

“We need writers. We need thinkers. We need creators,” she said.

The Thomas Wolfe scholarship aims to bring these visionaries to UNC. 

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