2020 Fall Mesothelioma Cancer Victims Memorial Scholarship Winners

Parker Rollins and Avery Moxness are the winners of the Mesothelioma Cancer Victims Memorial Scholarship. Each winner will receive a $2,500 scholarship paid directly to the financial aid accounts at their universities.

Applicants were asked to submit a written or video essay about how cancer has impacted their lives. Rollins’ winning written essay was selected after a competitive review by the Baron & Budd Scholarship committee. His essay detailed how he handled his father’s fight with adrenal cortical carcinoma. Rollins explained that his father has always been his role model, but when he became ill, Rollins had to step up and assume many of his father’s responsibilities and support his family. In his essay, Rollins recalls a conversation he had with his father.

“From his bed, my father would guide me. As he grew stronger, I grew stronger. His cancer was changing both of us. During a bedside talk, my dad asked me: ‘Why are you here, Parker?’ His words stirred around in my head for months before I put them to work,” Rollins wrote in his winning essay. He then goes on to describe how he took leadership roles in his school, church, and community in order to help others. “As I continue to grow, so will my father’s words. They will work through me to collaborate with the many people of the world that I will cross paths with; they will stop me in my tracks and forever make me turn around to help the person behind me.”

Rollins has a positive attitude aimed toward service to others. He is attending the University of Oregon where he is majoring in finance.

Additionally, Avery Moxness was selected by the Baron & Budd Scholarship committee as the video essay winner. Her video focused on her own diagnosis with brain cancer earlier this year. Moxness explains how she was unknowingly dealing with the effects of a brain tumor for years. She was often suffering from migraines and other severe pains that limited her activities, but she learned to persevere and remain positive.

In a letter of recommendation, Moxness’ teacher said, “I have always known that Avery is an outstanding person, however, I never knew the level of her passion for exceling in life until she was recently confronted with an emergency brain surgery. Avery not only dealt with that ordeal positively, but she demonstrated a level of courage that I have only seen in a handful of people.”

After having surgery to remove her brain tumor, Moxness is doing much better and spending most of her time trying to decide which college she will attend for musical theater. Moxness has been accepted to four colleges and will be completing her auditions for the schools’ musical theater programs soon. She hopes to become a Broadway performer once she finishes college.

The Mesothelioma Cancer Victims Memorial Scholarship was established to honor the legacy of the thousands of Americans who are diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer every year. Baron & Budd’s scholarship program is open to incoming freshmen who will attend a US-based four-year university or college. For more information about the Baron & Budd Mesothelioma Cancer Victims Memorial Scholarship, please visit baronandbudd.com/mesothelioma-lawyer/scholarships/.