The Ballard-McConnell-Willis Mathematics Scholarships

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The Ballard-McConnell-Willis Mathematics Scholarships

The Ballard-McConnell-Willis Mathematics Scholarships are made possible through a trust fund established in 1983 by Mr. John W. Ballard. Every year a selection committee seeks to identify three new recipients: one senior, one junior, and one sophomore who satisfy the criteria laid out in Mr Ballard’s will. These scholarships are continued for each recipient through their remaining years of attendance at Berea, up to the fourth year, as long as the recipient continues to satisfy the scholarship criteria.

The Ballard-McConnell-Willis Mathematics Scholarship is awarded to one senior, one junior, and one sophomore mathematics major at Berea College who are:

Financial support is provided through this scholarship in the hopes that the recipient’s educational experience will be enriched in ways that would not have been possible otherwise. Foreign study or other-cultural educational experiences are especially encouraged. Other examples of uses for these funds include:

Each year, the family of John Ballard visits the College and the department to meet and talk with the students and the faculty, so Virginia Willis and her daughter Ann Sebrell are annual visitors to Berea College.

John William Ballard was born in the first decade of the Twentieth Century in the farming community of Haubstadt, Indiana, and spent his childhood there. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Evansville College (now University) in Indiana and his law degree at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. After serving in the Armed Services during World War II, he resumed courting Helen McConnell and they were married in 1948.

John joined his uncle’s law firm in Princeton, Indiana, and spent most of his professional life probating wills. When his uncle died, John took over the law firm.

John and Helen, a former fourth grade teacher, loved children, but had none of their own. They both enjoyed spending time with their six nieces and nephews, regaling them with family stories and jokes. When it was time for them to go to college, John provided an incentive to study hard, promising a gold watch to any of the nieces and nephews who made Phi Beta Kappa.

John had simple tastes, enjoying squirrel hunting, especially keeping his guns polished and cleaned to perfection, and rooting for his favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals. He did have one luxury, his Mercedes Benz, kept in the garage during the week while he walked to work, but used on Sundays to attend church. John’s faith in God prompted him to teach the adult Sunday School class at the Methodist church in Princeton, where he and Helen were members throughout their marriage.

At Thanksgiving Helen and John, along with her two brothers and sister and their families, gathered at her mother’s house for dinner throughout the late 1940’s and ’50’s. After all the brothers and sisters had taken their turns hosting the dinner, someone suggested going to the Boone Tavern Hotel instead and from the mid-1960’s through the early 1970’s everyone enjoyed coming to Berea. Happy memories of those family get-togethers and a desire to help children further their education prompted John to establish a scholarship fund at Berea College.

At John’s death his will provided that a Scholarship Fund be established in memory of his wife Helen (who had died a few years earlier in 1972) and in honor of her family. The Ballard-McConnell-Willis Scholarship Fund allows top mathematics students to enhance their Berea learning experience.

Ballard-McConnell-Willis Mathematics Scholarship Manual

by: Huy Nguyen

Ballard- McConnell- Willis (BMW) scholarship is the most prestigious award offered by the Math Dept, and the single biggest outside scholarship on campus. There are many ways you can make the most out of this award; however, the process of “spending” it is rather informal. I have had quite a few BMW recipients asking me about the specific procedures of using this pretty big amount of money. That is why I decided to write up this so-called “manual” of BMW award, so that people who receive it after me can have a clue what to do. This is written merely based on personal perspectives and experiences from the two times I received this scholarship.

1. The selection:

To be considered for BMW awards, these criteria must be met:

In the upper 10% of class
With excellent scholarship
Having upright moral character
Demonstrating potential for accomplishment
With ability to instill in others an appreciation for mathematics

Every year, around April, three new BMW scholars will be chosen out of three classes: sophomore, junior, and senior, based on nominations of BMW committee. You do not need to submit an application or anything. It is rather crucial that you do well in Math classes. Furthermore, there are also other facts that could show your dedication or strong interest in becoming a good mathematician. For example, working for the Math/CS department for your labor position is one significant way for students to satisfy the 5th criteria. So when selecting a student whether they work for the department and how well they work for the department factors significantly into the selection.

BMW awards will automatically be renewed every year for existing scholars, as long as they maintain their GPA among the top 10% of their class.

2. How to use:

BMW awards can be used toward academic purposes, as listed on BMW description page. If you are a senior, your BMW award can only be used to purchase computers (typically), journals, books, etc. with the total amount must be

Notes for those who plan to go to a different school:

There is no official program that Berea College or Math Dept organizes for the students to go to other schools. This is when you shows your independence and creativity. The fund will be supplied by the BMW fund, but the process to get you off and going at the other school, as well as transferring courses back, totally depends on you.

When you look for a school, make sure that it is worth the money that you are about to spend. Also you need to make sure the courses you take there can be transferred back. Usually, you will have to go out there to the school, find a place to stay, get your course registration forms signed by professors, then get you registered. If you choose to do the summer program instead of a regular semester at the school, you will miss out good courses taught by good professors, but the trade-offs will be that you do not have to worry about finding housing and getting registered yourself.

List of schools that BMW scholars chose to go to in the past:

University of California at Berkeley
University of Washington
London School of Economic
North Carolina State University
Harvard University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Having been used to Berea, I suspect that there will be many differences you are going to encounter, especially if you are participating in a regular semester instead of summer school. Among those is housing, a real difficulty for a big college town like Berkeley, Seattle or Raleigh. You may find it helpful to live in a motel in the first couple of days while you look for housing over there. There are housing services by the school that may have you find roommate or apartment listings. Newspapers, internet websites are also useful to find postings. Another difficulty you may encounter is selecting a good course load. It is typical that big schools are more challenging than Berea, so 3 or 4 classes are OK (recommend: 3). This is a valuable opportunity to take a wide variety of classes, so you may want to choose wisely.

Remember, while you are away, you first are given only a portion of the fund to start out with. Then you will save up receipts and send them back to Berea to get reimbursement.

For those traveling abroad, discuss with the International Office about visa issues first.

In order to transfer back the courses you take, you need to have an official transcript from the school you studied sent to Berea College’s Academic Services. Some or all the courses may or may not be transferred. The transferred courses will appear on your transcript, but will not affect your grade at Berea. Another thing to keep in mind is that when you go to study at another school, you will miss out some courses offered at Berea, especially the general education courses. So make plan so that you can still finish your general education before graduation.