Providence Student Gets Full Scholarship at Presbyterian College

Erika Gotfredson, a senior at Providence Christian Academy, is one of two Presbyterian College applicants to receive the Quattlebaum Honor Scholarship, which awards students for not only their exceptional academic achievement, but demonstrated leadership ability and potential, as well as outstanding personal character. 

The highly selective Quattlebaum Scholarship will cover the full cost of Gotfredson’s tuition, room, board and fees at PC for up to four years, a value of more than $160,000.

In addition, she will be a Presidential Fellow, serving in the PC president’s office where she will have ample opportunity to ponder her vocational interests and to prepare for life after PC. Presently, Gotfredson is interested in psychology as a major, or education, after her mom, Sharon, who is a middle school teacher at Providence Christian Academy.

Other family members are also a part of the PCA community, including her sister Jordan, Class of 2008, and her younger brother Duncan, Class of 2015.

“Providence helped prepare me for college in amazing ways through my honors and AP courses,” Gotfredson explained. “Also, without my involvement in so many leadership opportunities [at Providence], I don’t think I could have ever won the Quattlebaum Scholarship,” she concluded.

“Erika has been a model student since she stepped foot in Providence,” said Dr. Sean Chapman, the Providence Christian Academy high school principal. “She works extremely hard, enjoys learning, and contributes in class,” he continued. “Her influence at Providence has made us a better school. I am proud of Erika and happy for her to be recognized by Presbyterian College as someone deserving of such an honor. They made a great choice,” he concluded.

Gotfredson has served on Student Council for three years and she has played on the Varsity Girls’ Basketball Team for all four years of high school. This season, she averaged 17 points a game, scored her 1,000th career point, and was the fourth-leading scorer in Gwinnett County.

“All of my friends are counting down the days until we graduate, but I’m not,” she said. “I’m really going to miss Providence,” she confessed.

Maybe that’s why she chose a small college like PC, with a student population of around 1,300. The campus, like Providence, is known for its sense of community and close atmosphere. Another similarity is both schools’ emphasis on service. The motto of PC is "Dum Vivimus Servimus" or "While We Live We Serve." Service is a crucial part of PC, and almost all of its students partake in some form of service by the time they graduate. Likewise, Providence requires all high school students to perform community service hours each semester to help foster a love of helping others and live out their vision to become an intentional and effective partner in developing young men and women who are impacting the world in which they live.

"It will be like going to my 13th year of Providence,” Gotfredson joked regarding her enrollment at PC in the fall.

PC was in her top three choice of colleges, but moved right to the top after she visited the campus for the first round of Quattlebaum Scholarship interviews.

“At PC, it is more about the people and relationships you form, with the students and the professors; and that is just how it is at Providence, too,” Gotfredson explained.

In addition to Gotfredson’s interests in school and basketball, she is an avid traveler. She will take her fourth mission trip to Ecuador this summer and has been to more than six European countries on family trips with her grandmother, who shares her passion for travel.

PROVIDENCE CHRISTIAN ACADEMY is the premier, mid-sized K-12 Christian school in the Atlanta area, offering programs and qualities that rival larger schools along with more personal attention and the comfortable fit of a smaller student body. www.providencechristianacademy.org.

(Editor's note: This article is from a Providence Christian Academy press release.)