Winthrop student from Fort Mill receives 1st Hurst Scholarship

Class of 2012 Winthrop alumna Anna Marie Hurst loved children and was known for her take-charge attitude, qualities also exemplified in the first recipient of the Anna Marie Hurst Memorial Scholarship.

Fort Mill resident Sarah Stalions, 20, was chosen for the endowed scholarship, which Hurst’s family established in 2013 and provides financial assistance to Winthrop students studying elementary education, family and consumer sciences or early childhood education.

Preference is given to South Carolina residents and members of Alpha Delta Pi sorority, of which Hurst, who died in 2012, belonged.

Philanthropic Adviser Nate Brinkley said Hurst’s family and friends banded together to start the endowment.

“They wanted to do something to keep her memory alive,” he said. “I could tell that the family and Anna were very much loved.”

Hurst’s mother Melanie Hurst said she and her family wanted the scholarship to honor the things her daughter held dear, such as her relationship with her sorority sisters.

“It was so important to her,” she said. “They are unbelievable girls.”

Stalions, a junior early education major, shares Hurst’s values and even some of her personality traits. She said Hurst’s family saw a bit of Anna in her when she met them at the scholarship ceremony on Oct. 30.

“I could see them looking at me and seeing her,” she said. “It was a special moment.”

Both Stalions and Hurst are known for being sassy and speaking their minds and for their love of children. Stalions is also in a sorority.

“It’s crazy how much we really are the same,” she said.

Stalions said whenever she faces a challenge during her education, she channels her “inner Anna.”

She said the scholarship is a way for the family to continue honoring Hurst.

“It shows them that her legacy and memory will not ever go away,” Stalions said.

Melanie said her family felt the scholarship would be the best way to give back to the school Hurst loved and to support another student.

“It’s been a wonderful thing to be able to do it for somebody else,” she said. “Anna would be very thrilled. She was always wanting to help people.”

Fred Simmons, stepfather of Hurst’s sorority big sister Lauren Copeland, said the scholarship is a continuous reminder of Hurst.

“It’s important to continue the memory of such an extraordinary person and the first recipient seems like an extraordinary person as well,” he said.

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Winthrop student from Fort Mill receives 1st Hurst Scholarship."