Valwood senior Thomas Griner has accepted the UGA Foundation Fellowship. The Foundation Fellowship is the University of Georgia’s top academic scholarship and is available through the Morehead Honors College.
The Foundation Fellowship provides generous academic funding, stipends for group and individual travel-study, and research and conference grants. More than 2,000 students apply for this fellowship, 55 were interviewed and only 25 were selected.
“The Foundation Fellowship is full of amazing benefits that I plan to take full advantage of while attending the University of Georgia,” Griner said. “I am really looking forward to the travel and networking opportunities that I will have.”
Griner has attended Valwood School since pre-kindergarten. He is a member of the Spanish Honor Society, Mock Trial, Model UN, chess club, and music club. In 2023, he received the Woodmen of the World award for AP US History, the AP Language award and was named the Mock Trial MVP. During the summer of 2023, he attended State Bar of Georgia Law Academy (where he was inducted with honors to State Bar of Georgia) and participated in the Governor’s Honors Program.
Griner is the son of Clay and Mendi Griner.
Valwood history teacher and Mock Trial coach Daryn Beasley stated, “Thomas is one of the most gifted students I have ever had the privilege to teach. He possesses a unique, admirable and immediately recognizable drive that transcends most people his age. I am thrilled, but not at all surprised, by this selection. Thomas is absolutely the kind of indomitable young scholar that receives opportunities like this.”
Founded in 1972 by UGA Foundation trustees, the Foundation Fellowship places students in a community of dedicated scholars. The stipend approximates the cost of attendance.
The Foundation Fellowship includes post-first-year Maymester study abroad program at the University of Oxford, individual travel-study grants, group travel-study, held during the university’s spring break week, research and academic conference grants and dinner seminars with faculty and alumni.
The Foundation Fellowship emphasizes community, sharing of resources and ideas, and lifelong friendships. Peer mentoring, dinner seminars, book discussions, cultural events, group travel, the Fellows Library in Moore Hall, and twice-a-year off-campus retreats promote a community of scholars who stimulate each other’s intellectual and personal development through the exchange of ideas and experiences.