Noah Fields Awarded Morris Scholarship

Congratulations to Noah Fields, who was awarded the 2023 Dr. M. Rosalind Morris Scholarship by NCHS. 

The scholarship is funded through the generosity of M. Rosalind Morris, who began the scholarship in 2014 because of her strong belief in both education and the work of NCHS. Dr. Morris was a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1947-1990. She was a pioneer in agricultural science and internationally recognized for her work in wheat genetics. After leading a highly accomplished life, Dr. Morris passed away in 2022, just shy of her 102nd birthday.

The scholarship is given to two high school seniors who were adopted through NCHS. Recipients must be attending postsecondary institutions in Nebraska, with preference to students majoring in the education, social work, or science fields. In conjunction with the NCHS 130^th anniversary celebration, this was the final year of the Morris Scholarship. 

Below is the essay that Noah submitted to the scholarship committee. Applicants were asked to answer the questions, “How has NCHS and your adoption experience made a difference in your life? What does ‘family’ mean to you? How do you plan to use your educational experience and training to affect the lives of others? How would this scholarship impact you personally and in your future education?”

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“NCHS and my adoption experience have made a difference in my life in more ways than I likely know. The question leads to something of a paradoxical answer for me, because I was adopted as an infant. It is true without a doubt that my life would have been vastly different than it is today had I not been adopted. I would have grown up with different parents in a different town. I would have had different friends and a different school. Because of these differences in environment, I would not have had the same formative experiences and would likely have cultivated different interests. I find it likely that, as far as my personality goes, the person who I could have become would be unrecognizable when compared to the person whom I actually became.

However, who I would have become had I not been adopted, I will never know. One can speculate, but the truth is that I will never grasp the matter. So, the answer to the question of how my adoption has made a difference in my life is, as I said, a bit of a paradox: I know that it changed the course of my life in inconceivable ways, and yet I really have no idea how it has changed my life. To quote Socrates regarding the matter, "I know that I know nothing."*

Although the difference between the imagined possible life and the life I have truly had is unknown, let it be said that because of my adoption I have been considerably blessed. I have been raised in a home with a loving mother and father who have helped and encouraged me in all my endeavors from the earliest age. I have not lacked in any material need and have been educated adequately, by the societal standard. I have shared time with good friends and have made lasting memories. I've certainly had struggles, but God has used each negative experience to teach me; to shape and mold me into who I am and who I am becoming. Everything matters and nothing has been wasted.

Through everything, my family has been there for me. They have persisted in being there for me even when I haven't wanted them to be. They have never shut me out even when they had every right to. To me, this is family: unconditional love, or rather "love, despite." Despite the fact I have rebelled in numerous ways, my parents have never ceased to love me. This is something which, if I have children, I intend to continue. This is the only way in which change within an individual can ever take place. Condemnation only incites fear and causes a person to run. True love welcomes despite flaws. It does not approve of or enable wrongs, but it continues to love in the face of these things. The presence of this type of love is the essence of family to me.

Some might say that family is gathering together on holidays, celebrating victories, helping one another through hardship, the sharing of filial bonds, etc. I have no quarrel with these things, on the contrary, they are good things. But these are things which families can do, not what family is. Family transcends blood-relations, it is more than mere activity. Its essence is unconditional love: "love, despite." Plato, in Republic, says "[H]e who, having a sense of beautiful things has no sense of absolute beauty [...] -- of such a one I ask, is he awake or in a dream only? Reflect: is not the dreamer, sleeping or waking, one who likens dissimilar things, who puts the copy in place of the real object?" By forgetting the unconditional love upon which true family is built, we are putting the copy in place of the real object. We are likening beautiful (dissimilar) things to absolute beauty. This absolute beauty (unconditional love), although it took me far too long to recognize it, is what family is to me, and what I believe the true essence of family to be on the whole.

My family has always encouraged and supported me in my educational endeavors, regardless of what I was considering at the time. College attendance was never forced upon me. If I wanted to go, the option was there, and if not, that was a perfectly fine option as well. I've had some difficulty deciding on my field of study, but I've settled on studying Rangeland Management Science at Chadron State College. I intend to use this educational experience to pursue a career in the National Park System through which I will help to preserve nature and its systems for future generations. Of course, I also hope to use this career to educate the present generation regarding the wonders of the natural world. It goes without saying that I possess a love for nature as a whole and hope to pass this on to others so that nature will be valued.

This scholarship would impact me personally by lessening the amount I will have to work outside of school to pay for college, by lessening the amount which my parents will have to pay, by helping my college savings stretch further and by minimizing debt. Of course, this scholarship would also impact me in the meaning it holds. The NCHS changed the course of my life even though my knowledge of the true nature of the change is limited. This scholarship would certainly bring about more positive change for me."