Published 11:37 am Friday, April 18, 2025
By Faith Callens
Thursday, The Selma-Dallas County Library and its Director Becky Nichols awarded two scholars within the community a scholarship each through two of its scholarship programs named the Edwin and Virginia Godbold Scholarship and the Will Goodwyn Scholarship.
Nichols said The Edwin and Virginia Godbold Scholarship was established to support and encourage higher education for Selma and Dallas County students in the public school system.
“And the Will Goodwyn Scholarship can be useful to a student graduating from Selma High School,” Nichols said.
Both application processes are managed through the Selma-Dallas County Public Library, and this year’s recipient for the Edwin and Virginia Godbold Scholarship award was Southside High School Senior Jakayla Hatcher.
“I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to even apply in the first place,” Hatcher said. “And I am extremely grateful. I will use this money of $2,500 to help better my education at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.”
Hatcher said she would tell any scholar who is thinking about applying for the scholarship next year to go for it.
“Whatever dreams that the applicant has set for themselves, even if it sounds crazy or weird to other people, I feel like the first step to achieving the dream is to move forward,” Hatcher added.
Like Hatcher, Selma High School senior Javiell Reeves was this year’s chosen recipient for the Will Goodwyn Scholarship.
“It feels good,” Reeves said. “I’m really appreciative to the judges and everybody that gave me this opportunity from my counselors, my parents, my whole family really. Like they say, it takes a village.”
Both scholars told The Selma Times-Journal that they have bright futures ahead. Reeves stated within the scholarship awarding ceremony that he had plans to attend Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tenn., in the near future.
Judge Maggie Drake-Peterson said both scholars were chosen for the scholarship awards because they represented themselves as two of the best students who applied.
“They had the ability, the scores, the plans and they were ready to move forward,” Peterson said. “And, they came prepared.”
Peterson said she just wants to encourage young people to understand that getting out of high school is the beginning of moving on with life. She said they have to make decisions early to find out what school they want to attend, learn the steps it takes to get into the school of their choice and be ready to work hard to obtain what they want out of life.
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