NCHS offers $1,000 Ted Moline Scholarship to graduating High School seniors residing in Nicollet County.

The Nicollet County Historical Society is offering the $1,000 Ted Moline Scholarship for post-secondary education to 2011 graduating High School seniors residing in Nicollet County. The scholarship will be awarded to the student that demonstrates the greatest contribution to the discovery, preservation, and/or dissemination of county history.

Ted Moline was born July 21, 1915 in St. Paul and soon after his family moved to Baldwin Wisconsin. Ted received an amateur radio operator license in 1934 and was an avid operator the rest of his life. Ted moved to St. Peter in 1937 to work for the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha Railroad. Ted also served in the United States Army. He retired in 1971 as a Colonel. Ted passed away in August of 2005. He was an extremely generous man who loved local history. This scholarship honors Ted and his commitment to our mission.

Students wishing to compete for this year’s scholarship must create a significant project that contributes to the preservation and/or understanding of Nicollet County history. This could include an oral history project, exhibit, documentary film, research paper, play, or other work. Projects should involve primary source research and add to the historical record. Projects that simply restate historical facts in book report fashion will not be very successful. We would like to see real historical exploration, understanding, and an excitement in conveying that to others. We would encourage students and/or educators to contact the Society before projects begin to avoid confusion.

The deadline to enter projects is May 13, 2011. Projects will be judged by an expert panel at a public reception, held May 21st at the Treaty Site History Center. Students will be asked to attend and present their projects. Final copies of each project will be preserved in the NCHS collections.

For more information please contact Ben Leonard at 507-934-2160 or ben@nchsmn.org.