Georgia Miller wins Ave Maria University scholarship

When Georgia Miller walked into the room she thought everyone was there to congratulate her on winning a Christmas sweater contest at her high school. When friends and family filled the room with cheers and an Ave Maria University representative whipped out the Publishers Clearing House-sized check emblazoned with her name and $75,000, she knew it wasn’t about her festive, light-up sweater.

Georgia, an 18-year-old senior at The Geneva School, a private Christian school in Seminole County, won the scholarship for Ave Maria University located in Ave Maria by getting a top score on a test given in November. Forty-five students who had already been accepted to the college with the highest ACT scores were invited to compete for the scholarship. Georgia got the third place prize in the three-hour-long, 100-question test created by the school’s professors.

This scholarship, which will pay for four years of tuition and fees, is in addition to the one she already received to play lacrosse at Ave Maria.

“It’s an honor, but I’m just so excited that I can do this for my family because with four kids, I didn’t want to go anywhere and have them pay for it, so I’m really happy that I could do this for them,” she said.

Georgia said that she owes much of her success to The Geneva School. She wasn’t happy when her parents enrolled her, but the challenging, engaging and community-driven environment made her fall in love with the school. She saw a future and purpose for herself she hadn’t seen before.

“Once I came to Geneva that’s when it really switched on for me,” she said. “They really sparked a love for learning, and it’s literally anything, I love all my classes.”

Nothing bores her, she said. She’s as passionate about math and science as she is about literature or her natural history course, a dream class because she gets to study by heading outside and finding bugs to draw or watching butterflies drift by, she said. It doesn’t sound like studying is work for Georgia.

“She really enjoys learning; she dives into everything she does,” her dad Scott Miller said. “She has a project, we don’t see her for days, when she has a test, she goes up to her room for hours and hours and hours, she totally immerses herself in whatever she does.”

Her teachers see that, too.

“She has a wonderful ability, well beyond a high schooler’s ability to synthesize big ideas; she’s just impressive as a thinker,” history teacher Grant Brodrecht said.

“A sense of wonder comes to mind, she’s just always been curious,” Kevin Clark, academic dean for Geneva.

Her main worry about going to college is liking all of her classes so much she won’t be able to choose a major. And she’s not just about academics. Georgia has played lacrosse since she was in the 3rd grade, and was the only girl on her team for four years — the boys on the other team couldn’t tell they were playing against a girl because of the helmet, she said. She also loves drama, has written plays and is a gifted comedic actor, Scott said.

Georgia said her favorite part about drama is interacting with the younger students. She loves learning and helping others learn, and could see herself as a teacher one day.

“[I love] the feeling you get when all of a sudden they get something and it clicks for them and you know that you were able to make even a small difference,” she said.

Georgia said her dream job would be to come back to Geneva as a teacher and to coach lacrosse. Those who know Georgia said there’s no limit to what she could choose to do.