It would be perfectly understandable if Brother Rice senior Nolan Leonard took his summers off.
During all or parts of his four school years in Chicago, he has played basketball, baseball, lacrosse and golf.
And…
Leonard has announced sporting events for Brother Rice TV and has his own video feature “Life With Leonard” in which he takes walks while he interviews student athletes.
And…
He is a student council vice president, a peer mediator, a Kairos leader, the editor of the school newspaper, a mentor in the Mt. Sion program, a member of the Politics Club, the Microlending Club, Crusaders for Inclusion, the Investment Club, the National Honor Society, Crusaders for the Rosary, the Spanish Club and Crusaders for Guadalupe.
And…
He is a student ambassador, peer minister and office runner who has made advocacy trips to try to improve the environment for Rice schools around the world via the Action Leadership
Conference in New Jersey.
But he doesn’t take his summers off to rest or recharge.
Leonard caddies at the Ridge Country Club and it’s because of his summer work, he was able to obtain the Holy Grail of scholarships as he earned the Chick Evans Scholarship. It’s an award that provides four years of college tuition and housing.
He found out he won the scholarship in mid-December.
“It was probably the best Christmas gift I could ever receive,” he said. “When I got the package and the green Evans flag was in there…it’s truly a day I will never forget.”
The Oak Lawn resident is headed to Marquette to study journalism and political science. And with his background and variety of interests, he has a lot of professions he can choose from.
But he’s not choosing right now.
“I have a grand vision that I want to make a difference and bring about a positive change to our world,” Leonard said. “I’m not 100% sure what I want to be yet. I’m all over the place a little bit – especially with journalism.
“I feel like it’s such an important profession and I want to restore credibility to the field. In this era of AI and all of that stuff, no matter what your thoughts are, I think we can agree that it’s pretty crazy at this time in the world.”
He is also giving thought to running for the U.S. Senate.
According to Evans officials, roughly 380 caddies across the nation received the scholarship, which is valued at $125,000 over four years.
The Western Golf Association has been awarding these valuable scholarships since 1930, and there have been more than 12,575 awarded in the near century the program has been in existence.
More than 100 are from the Chicago area this year.
“Each of these 104 students has earned this life-changing opportunity through their hard work, dedication and outstanding character,” WGA Director and Illinois state co-chair Kim Schriver said in a news release. “They represent the very best of the Evans Scholars Program and we are proud to welcome them as they take the next step toward college and future leadership.”
Other scholarship winners from schools in the Southwest Regional Publishing area were:
Alexandra Perez (Morton), Olubukola Onimole (Marist), Katie Lam (Lyons), Alfredo Barron (De La Salle), Hector Castillo (Marist), Quinn Flannery (Mount Carmel), Lizbeth Lopez Martines (De La Salle), Joseph Macias (St. Rita), Terrance Carr (Lyons), Gustavo Mojarro (Lyons), Benicio Conejo (St. Laurence), Matthew Hardek (Sandburg), Christopher Sawic (Sandburg), Ethan Phillips (Stagg), Jasper Wills (Stagg) and Aleksandra Sajic (Lyons).
When Leonard was in grade school, he saw his older cousins caddy and he gave it a shot.
“I thought it would be cool to be a caddy,” Leonard said. “The movie ‘Caddyshack’ is one of my favorites. So, I signed up. It’s been great.”