The Charles and Polly Webber American History Endowed Scholarship was established in 1975 by the Alexandria Scottish Rite Bodies as a tribute to Charles E. Webber and his wife, Pauline Graham Webber, to advance the study of American history. Mr. Webber was a leader in the Southern Jurisdiction (U.S.) of the Scottish Rite. Awarded to rising juniors and seniors pursuing degrees in American History.
Katherine is an undergraduate in her senior year majoring in history with a concentration in public history. Growing up in the Northern Virginia area surrounded by historical sites sparked her interest in studying and pursuing a career in history. Her favorite classes at Mason have been the Civil War and Reconstruction, War and American Society, the American Revolution, and the Underground Railroad, Slavery, and Abolition. In addition to her studies, Katherine volunteers with Mason’s Center for Humanities Research and works part-time as a digital history research assistant for Dr. Jessica Otis at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at GMU. Through this work and her courses, she is learning important historical skills like the transcription of digitized documents and analyzing primary sources that will help her achieve her goals of becoming a historian. She plans to apply to graduate school to earn a master’s degree and work towards a PhD in history.
Elizabeth Powers is a junior who is working towards a bachelor of arts in history with a concentration in the history of the United States. She graduated from Yorktown High School in her home town of Arlington, Virginia. She is a member of George Mason University’s Honors College. After graduating from George Mason, she hopes to pursue a master’s degree where she can use what she has learned to help educate the public about history.