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The Lesa Woody Memorial Scholarship in Performance Studies is awarded on a competitive basis to undergraduate students who participate in curricular performance studies courses and co-curricular activities, such as the
Texts in Performance Series and the Petit Jean Performance Festival.
Dr. Ted Colson, head of the Performance Studies program at the time Lesa Woody was enrolled at the University of North Texas describes her as " a beautiful, petite red-head. She was an excellent student and very active in all the performance studies programs -- including a lot of extra-curricular performances and a great deal of travel to festivals, etc. She was one of our mainstays and a very talented performer. She loved our program. That is why the scholarship was established exclusively for performance students." Colson reports that in the summer between her Junior and Senior years (1978), Lesa developed intense headaches Her mother decided to take her out of school for medical examinations. She took Lesa home to Wichita Falls. It was discovered she had a brain tumor. Surgery was attempted, only to reveal that there was a tumor at the base of the brain that had sent out many tentacles all over her brain. She died later that summer. Lesa's mother and step-father, Ruby and Stan Carter established the scholarship fund in her name. Friends of the family later added to the initial amount. This scholarship is currently administered by Dr. Jay Allison. |
