Lily Hyde: Morehead-Cain Semifinalist

The Morehead-Cain Foundation announced in December that Lily Hyde ’24 is a semifinalist for the Morehead-Cain  Scholarship at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Only 20 percent of Morehead-Cain nominees advance to the Semifinalist level. Lily completed an automated online interview and will learn of her status later this month. The Morehead-Cain Scholarship is a four-year, fully funded educational experience for students of the highest caliber at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her application, Hyde identified her junior year AP English Literature teacher, Leigh Block, as the educator who has had the most profound impact on her. 

Students outside of North Carolina, Canada or the United Kingdom must attend a nomination school or affiliate program to be considered for the Morehead-Cain Scholarship and be nominated by that school. This year, Director of College Counseling Kristin Larsen nominated Hyde. Selection criteria for the Morehead-Cain are leadership, moral force of character, academic achievement, and physical vigor. Only a handful of Morehead-Cain recipients are selected, solely based on merit and accomplishment, from among the thousands of students who apply. “It has been a privilege to nominate and support two previous FWCD Morehead-Cain winners [Morgan Pergande ’13 and Paloma Casanova ’21] and a number of semifinalists, and Lily, without a doubt, wonderfully represents all of the qualities that are valued by the Morehead-Cain selection committee,” Larsen said. 

Hyde highlights community and opportunity as reasons for her application for the prestigious scholarship. “These two naturally go hand-in-hand when it comes to Morehead-Cain. After researching the program and having the opportunity to speak with alumni, it’s clear that the program is the living representation of ‘teamwork makes the dream work,’” Hyde said. “And who wouldn’t want that in a college environment, one that breeds joint enthusiasm, joint passion and joint success?”

During the application process, Hyde was asked to talk about an educator who has had the most profound impact on her. “When I came to the teacher of influence question on my Morehead-Cain application, I couldn’t have written Mr. Block’s name down faster,” she said. Block is well known as FWCD’s Director of Athletics. He also teaches AP English Literature to juniors. “Take risks. That was his mantra every single day of class. Take risks with your writing; take risks in everything you do. By constantly pushing us to venture out of our comfort zone, my writing now has so much more dimension, so much more personality, and so much more originality. And that’s an irreplaceable gift.”

Hyde enjoys Block’s classroom environment, which she describes as striking the perfect balance between being informal and still structured. Class typically involved Block sitting with students in a circle and chatting about the book they were reading, bringing up certain points from time to time but mostly leaving the students to bounce ideas off one another. “He also made it a priority to take breaks and hear about how our lives were going,” she said. “This seems so simple, but I think we all get so wrapped up in the routine of school, school, school that we never pause and take a breath. His care for the whole student is unmatched, and this made the learning process in his class unmatched as well.”

Throughout her junior year, Hyde experienced Block’s passion for teaching firsthand. “I don’t think there was one day of class where he didn’t light up as he was teaching, and this is just such a special thing to experience as a student. Whenever I emailed him asking for his opinion on my ideas for approaches to an essay, he would email me back with a long list of the pros and cons of those ideas, adding on other detailed explanations of other avenues I could explore and signing off with an all-caps ‘YOU’VE GOT THIS! YOU’RE GOING TO CRUSH IT! YOU'RE A ROCKSTAR!,’” she shared. “It was tremendously reassuring, and the care and attention he dedicated to helping me improve my writing and make it the best it could be made me want to put the same care and attention to it, too. Whatever I do in life, I aspire to be as passionate about it as Mr. Block is about teaching.”

Hyde’s aspirations are already forming. She is interested in pursuing psychology in college and is drawn to this field because of its versatility. It applies to business, law, medicine, finance, education, marketing, politics, and more. “Whichever field I may eventually work in, there’s no doubt that understanding the ins and outs of human behavior will be tremendously beneficial,” she said. 

Hyde is the Founder and President of Brain Buddies, a community service organization on a mission to instill passion and curiosity for the brain among young minds within the FWCD community while simultaneously bridging the gap between two diverse age groups – elementary and high school – through learning, mentorship, bonding and fun. She also oversees the production of a Brain Buddies magazine. Her 2024 spring Capstone project will focus on developing a comprehensive Brain Buddies curriculum that will be accessible to schools nationwide through online subscription. 

As the youngest and only high school intern at the North Central Chapter Alzheimer’s Association in summer 2022, Hyde expanded the chapter’s partnership with the James L. West Center for Dementia Care and recruited 1,500 participants, volunteers and company sponsors for the 2022 Walk to End Alzheimer’s. In 2023, she interned with the James L. West Center as its only high school volunteer. She mastered Alex Trebek’s iconic Jeopardy! Voice when leading group games, and she danced, sang, painted, baked, fed and read with over 100 residents living with mild to severe dementia.

As a Morehead-Cain Semifinalist, Hyde is grateful for the entire experience, from application to interview. “Just making it to this semifinalist round seemed unbelievable to me. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself and start making plans for a program that admits so few candidates,” she said. “But I’ll put it this way: If I received the Morehead-Cain Scholarship, it would be a dream come true. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this special process."