The Morehead-Cain Foundation is pleased to announce the members of its class of 2027, who will begin their undergraduate journeys at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) in the fall of 2023.
The sixty scholars come from twenty-four North Carolina counties, seventeen U.S. states and territories (including North Carolina), and eight countries (including the United States). Their academic interests range from environmental sustainability and technology to political science and policy.
They join a thriving cohort of thinkers, leaders, creators, and adventurers at UNC–Chapel Hill, empowered to set their potential free. In addition to a fully funded undergraduate scholarship to one of the nation’s foremost public research universities, scholars gain access to a network of peers and mentors, challenging internships and summer experiences, and an opportunity to travel the world.
Laci Brook Mitchiner is a senior at Clayton High School in Clayton where she serves as student body president, yearbook editor, and president of the Book Club. She also runs on the cross country, winter and distance track, and spring mid-distance track teams.
At Clayton High School, she led a team of peer volunteers and organized a book drive that donated nearly 200 books to local charities. She attended the North Carolina Governor’s School—a four-week summer residential program for gifted and talented high school students—where she became fascinated with the study of epidemiology.
Laci is a competitive elite dancer and attends dance classes three to five days per week at Prestige Dance Institute. She also volunteers at her dance studio as a teacher assistant. In her free time, she enjoys mountain biking along the local trails with her father.
At Carolina, she is interested in studying physics and biomedical and health science engineering. She is the daughter of Crystal and Christopher Mitchiner of Raleigh, North Carolina.
The process of selecting the new class involves months of application review, virtual and in-person selection meetings, and semifinalist interviews leveraging the expertise of Foundation staff, a corps of professional readers, and hundreds of alumni interviewers and volunteer evaluators. Candidates enter the process via nomination—either from their school or their own. The UNC Office of Undergraduate Admissions also refers strong Early Action applicants as candidates for the process.
“We are delighted to announce the Morehead-Cain class of 2027. These emerging young leaders have not only exhibited tremendous academic achievement, but the capacity to shape their communities,” said Chris Bradford, president of Morehead-Cain. “Morehead-Cain is invested in empowering this new cohort of scholars as they step boldly into the next phase of their journey. We look forward to the impact they will make at Carolina and beyond.”
Since its founding in 1945, the Morehead-Cain Program has been a model for countless merit scholarships throughout the United States. These include the University of Virginia’s Jefferson Scholars Program, Duke University’s Benjamin N. Duke Scholars Program, and Emory University’s Woodruff Scholars Program.
