Personal for
the Hunter Watson Scholar
Congratulations on being selected as the Hunter Brooks Watson Scholar!
The annual scholarship, endowed through a gift to Syracuse University from the Watson family, honors the life, passion, and entrepreneurial spirit of Hunter Brooks Watson.
In 2016, Watson was a rising junior at the school when his life was tragically cut short as a passenger in a distracted driving accident.
Selected annually by a university panel, each Hunter Brooks Watson Scholar commits to keeping Hunter's memory alive by articulating and sharing his spirit, passions, and accomplishments.
As a Hunter Watson Scholar, you have four expectations important to the Watson family.
1. Work with the Executive Director of the LaunchPad throughout the year to help make the LaunchPad program and events a success and help build a pipeline of engaged student innovators who exemplify Hunter Watson's spirit of entrepreneurship.
2. Mentor student entrepreneurs along their journey to prepare and participate in the annual Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship competition, work with the LaunchPad to promote the competition, and work with Watson Fund to help coordinate judges and judging logistics.
3. Represent the memory of Hunter Watson in a way similar to those of the Remembrance Scholars.
4. Examples:
a. Speak on behalf of Hunter Watson - Be prepared to tell who Hunter was when opportunities arise. A draft script appears below for ideas.
b. Who was Hunter Watson? - Information about who Hunter was can be found on the website of Hunter's Fund. Although you may want to become familiar with the entire website, specific areas that will be helpful are "About Hunter" - https://www.hunterwatson.org/about-hunter
c. Your Photo and Bio will also be added to: https://www.hunterwatson.org/awards-programs
d. Video - During the year, you are asked to produce a one to a two-minute video telling what being the Hunter Watson Scholar has meant to you.
Congratulations again and we are proud you are representing this in the year ahead.
The Watson family
Draft Script
Hunter Watson Scholar
DOWNLOAD COPY
Hello, I am proud to have been selected as the Hunter Watson Scholar this year, and I wanted to share something about who Hunter was.
Hunter chose this university because it offered the opportunity for him to study Big Data, classic college life, and a great sports reputation.
Hunter, from McLean, Virginia, enrolled and studied in the iSchool until he died as a passenger in a distracted driving accident just as he was to begin his junior year at Syracuse.
Following his loss, his fraternity held a candlelight vigil at Hendrix Chapel and spontaneously launched Syracuse's first Safe Driving Week by setting up tables around campus to encourage students to sign a pledge not to drive distracted. Thousands of our students signed the pledge.
Other campuses heard of this success, and Hunter's Fund offered to fund these startup campaigns, which have expanded to dozens of schools throughout the country resulting in tens of thousands of students signing Hunter's Pledge Not to Drive Distracted.
Those who knew Hunter Watson say he had a gift for music and performance. He began playing piano at the age of five, which sparked a true passion for musical composition and creation.
Hunter went on to write and record dozens of songs, and his middle school Black Out Band played at music festivals and most of the middle schools in the Washington, DC, area.
His music video, "Video Games," recorded when he was only 11 years old, was viewed more than that 10 million times on various YouTube channels.
Shortly after entering ninth grade, Hunter became the leader of a local DC entertainment venture that put on private club-like events for high school students - think, a regular nightclub. Only it served Coca-Cola instead of Rum and Cokes.
He played the role of a promoter and manager for these parties, making sure attendance was high and consistent and monitored party activity to make sure everyone was having fun and being safe. It was an idea that soon spread to cities around the country.
Hunter was also adept with computers and computer science from a very early age. He learned JavaScript and was able to create web pages from scratch.
With this background, he pursued numerous versions of self-led tech startups and other entrepreneurial ventures – many of which he kept to himself, but others he couldn't help but share with his friends.
Around the time he died, Hunter had become interested in stand-up comedy and attended numerous comedy clubs in New York City, volunteering to participate in acts when he could.
His goal was to make millions in Big Data and then become a stand-up comedian.
What made Hunter so unique was that if he had a vision he believed in, he didn't care if everyone told him it wouldn't work. His drive and self-belief drowned out the other's voices.
His motto was "Make Count Today," and he believed "making good friends is as important as making good grades."
Other honors and awards supported by the Watson family are the Hunter Watson Entrepreneurship Awards which have awarded cash prizes to more than 24 Launchpad teams with the best ideas for changing the lives of us all.
The family also funds a scholarship for his fraternity, where Hunter's original pledge class selects the annual winner.
The goal of Hunter's Fund is to help promising young people to achieve their dreams and be able to live out their lives and explore those dreams.
This helps the Watson family to see Hunter's dreams live on in the lives of others.
Being chosen as the Hunter Watson Scholar has meant much to me, and I hope each of you will consider applying for the scholarship next Spring.
Please do it for yourself and for Hunter and the others we have lost who will not be able to achieve their own dreams.
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