This new series In Their Words highlights our past recipients of the Moton Family Challenge Scholarship. Follow us as we provide an update on how the scholarship and your support has helped these young scholars advance their education.
Dylan Dove was an inaugural recipient of the merit-based scholarship from the Robert Russa Moton Museum’s Moton Family Challenge Scholarship in 2017.
Three years later, Dove is making strides to obtain his bachelor’s degree and pursue a career in computer sciences.
Dove, ’21, is a senior at Shepherd University in West Virginia, majoring in Computer and Information Sciences.
Dove, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, is the grandson of Deloris Earley.
“Receiving the Moton Museum Scholarship has greatly reduced the financial burden of my family and I,” Dove said in a recent interview. “The scholarship will allow me to continue to pursue my educational dreams.”
The $2,500-scholarship is merit based and renewable to full-time students for a maximum of three years after the initial award.
Dove said the scholarship has allowed him to pursue his major in Computer and Information Sciences, a major that combines his love and talent for mathematics and computers.
The major is both challenging and fulfilling.
“The parts of my major I find most rewarding is when I have been working on a code for one week straight and finally getting it to work,” Dove said. “It’s a great feeling after you put in the work and the code works properly.”
Pursuing this major, in addition to having the support of the scholarship, also allowed him to pursue internships and career opportunities.
“If not for the scholarship, it would be more difficult for me to complete my degree and therefore have an opportunity to achieve my career goals,” Dove said. “I am able to be more selective in interning and career opportunities as well as honing my computing skills.”
Dove has done job shadowing, and he has had the opportunity to intern with the Coast Guard among other places.
“After graduating I want to first start at an entry level job to gain some experience, then I want to work my way up either at the same job or another job with higher responsibilities,” Dove said.
Dove thanked those with the museum, and those who have donated to the scholarship, for continuing to support his educational pursuits.
“I greatly appreciate the generous financial support and the opportunity to pursue my educational dreams,” Dove said.
The scholarships are available to direct lineal descendants of a student or students denied a public education or displaced by the public school closings in Prince Edward County between the years 1959-1964.
To learn more about the scholarship program, or how to apply, visit https://motonmuseum.org/signature-programs/moton-family-challenge-scholarship.