Hickory Daily Record

Hickory High Alumni Aim To Create Alumni-Backed Scholarship For High School Seniors

Billy Chapman, April 21, 2026

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​Two Hickory High graduates from the 1970s with a passion for public education are leading an effort to start a scholarship supported by fellow alumni.

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Jay Johnson and Mark Little, Class of 1974, want to create a scholarship driven by alumni donors for seniors graduating from Hickory High and pursuing degrees in the arts or sciences.

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“This is a way of making Hickory High more competitive as an educational option by giving students a chance to advance their dreams,” Little said.

 

Jay Johnson, Sandi Fotheringham and Mark Little are working to create a scholarship for Hickory High seniors. Johnson and Little said they hope fellow alumni will help fund the scholarship to make it a recurring offer. 

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Johnson and Little said they hope to start awarding scholarships at the end of the 2026-2027 school year if they are able to raise the funds they need to establish the scholarship.

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Little said the idea to start a scholarship honoring Hickory teachers came to him around 2021. The first scholarship plans to be in honor of one of Little and Johnson’s teachers, Elizabeth Smyre.

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Smyre, who died in 2021 at the age of 84, loved being a teacher, according to her obituary.

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“She truly loved her vocation and received numerous accolades for her teaching throughout her career. Invariably when complimented for her work, she would always respond ‘Well I had really good kids.’ These kids continued to be a large and important part of her life for many, many years,” her obituary said.

 

Smyre received a degree in math from Lenoir-Rhyne and later received a master’s from Duke University in the 1960s, according to her obituary. She taught math for 30 years at Hickory High.

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To start the scholarship, Johnson and Little talked, connected with the school system and started working with others who had started similar scholarship funds. They are also working with former Hickory schools’ administrator and former executive director of the Hickory City Schools education foundation Sandi Fotheringham.

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They are partnering with the North Carolina Community Foundation to create the scholarship. The foundation is assisting by collecting funds and providing guidance about the scholarship-creation process.

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“We have the fun work of raising the money and they help with the administration,” Little said.

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Johnson and Little said they do not know how much money they will award for the first scholarship but are hoping to award about $1,500 for the first scholarships. That amount could increase based on the amount they fundraise.

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They are still working on the criteria for who will receive the first scholarship but they hope to award two scholarships per year, one for students studying sciences and another for arts.

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“Right now, we’re trying to keep things reachable, attainable, realistic,” Little said.

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To establish the scholarship, Little said they are looking to start with a minimum of $25,000 in the scholarship fund. They hope to raise that amount by September. If they do not get to that mark by September, they hope to keep going and award the first scholarships in 2028.

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As of Feb 1, Little said the fund had about $8,800. Their hope is to add donors so the scholarship will be recurring and an annual award.

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If the scholarship does not meet the required minimum by Jan. 1, 2027, funds in the scholarship account will be distributed to a charitable organization recommended by Johnson or Little, North Carolina Community Foundation Marketing & Communications Manager Hannah Hogewood said by email.

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Johnson and Little said they feel they can find community support to obtain funding and keep the scholarship going.

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“We want this to be something we can hand off to the next generation,” Johnson said.

 

According to the N.C. Community Foundation, donors can contribute money, stocks or securities, real estate and other ways.

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Checks can be written to the Hickory High School Alumni Scholarship Fund and mailed to the N.C. Community Foundation, 3737 Glenwood Ave, Suite 460, Raleigh, N.C. 27612.