Polk County High School senior Cole Pellatt was recently named a finalist for two prestigious full-ride scholarships,

one at UNC-Chapel Hill and the other at N.C. State University.
Pellatt will join 104 other finalists in competition for 45 Park Scholarships at N.C. State on Feb. 17-18. He will participate in individual interviews, a group task and panels with Park Scholars and faculty, as well as a dinner hosted by the chancellor, with the keynote address delivered by former Governor Jim Hunt. Park Scholarships are drawn from a pool of nearly 1,500 applicants.
Pellatt will then travel to Chapel Hill Feb. 25-28 to join about 125 fellow finalists for the approximately 55 Morehead-Cain Scholarships. Pellatt and the other finalists will participate in two 20-minute interviews.
Both scholarships target exceptional students, those with “outstanding accomplishments and potential in scholarship, leadership, service and character,” according to the Park Foundation.
Pellatt is the senior class president at Polk County High School and serves as a member of the Science Olympiad Team, the varsity soccer squad, Interact and the news team. He is also captain of the ski and snowboard team. He is a resident of Saluda and the son of Mark Pellatt and Carol Lynn Jackson.
The Park Scholarship includes educational trips to Washington, D.C. to study national issues alongside members of Congress and leadership retreats held at sites such as the Grand Canyon.
The Morehead-Cain is the first merit scholarship in the United States, and it also has a four-year summer enrichment program, with the first summer including courses from Outward Bound or National Outdoor Leadership School, each aiming to test and overcome limits, mentally, physically and emotionally.
Coy Durham was the most recent Polk County student to win the Morehead-Cain scholarship, 10 years ago.
Pellatt attended the North Carolina Governor’s School last summer in math but said he felt at home in science, too. If he attends N.C. State, he said he’ll go with an engineering degree, as in the aerospace field; if he goes to UNC-Chapel Hill, he said he’ll probably major in general math or physics.
Pellatt, who learned to read music and sing as part of the PCHS chorus and Vocal Impressions groups, said he taught himself the guitar when he decided he wanted to perform in the eighth-grade talent show. Then, as a junior at PCHS, he took up piano when he decided he wanted to perform on the piano for the talent show.
Laura White, sponsor to the PCHS News Team, said as a news anchor, Pellatt is “extremely talented and very organized. He is able to see beyond the immediate problem and anticipate upcoming glitches.”
Pellatt should get the results of the scholarship decisions by Feb. 29 for the Park Scholarship to N.C. State and by March 2 for the Morehead-Cain Scholarship to UNC-Chapel Hill.
As Pellatt says, “The frontiers are wide open.”
– article submitted by Stan Coss