It’s arguably the most coveted scholarship for incoming college students in Colorado. Each year, The Boettcher Foundation awards the Boettcher Scholarship - $20,000 per year for four years to be used for tuition and fees at any institution in the state - to its top 50 applicants. The foundation looks for community-minded, service-focused, high academic achieving difference-makers who will pursue their undergraduate degree in Colorado and benefit the communities in which they live.

Now, four years after receiving the award, Boettcher Scholar Owen Rask ’24 is looking back at his undergraduate experience at CC with a sense of pride and humility. He gives thanks to the Boettcher Foundation for providing him with not only financial support, but also a tight knit community of other Boettcher Scholars on campus.

“Some of my best friends, including three of the gentlemen I have lived with this past senior year, are fellow Boettcher Scholars at Colorado College,” Rask says. “And these friendships did not originate from ‘planned/formal’ campus Boettcher events. I interact with the other CC Boettcher Scholars often, as the Boettcher Foundation’s selection criteria seems to produce undergraduate scholars who are incredibly engaged and want to be in service to their college community.” 

For Rask, that has meant academic rigor. The Economics major and Math and Political Science double minor has been on the Dean’s List every year. This spring, he won the Kenneth J. and Elizabeth Hare Curran Award, given to an outstanding senior graduate in Economics. He also won the Ray O. Werner Thesis Award, given to a graduating senior who has written the most outstanding senior thesis. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honors society in the U.S., as well as Pi Gamma Mu, the national honors society for the social sciences.

“My undergraduate experience has shown me that the extended Boettcher Foundation family, including my fellow scholars, campus mentors, alums, and Boettcher Foundation staff, is and will always be a part of my life,” says Rask. “They have provided me with programming, support, investment, and camaraderie throughout the past four years. They have promised to continue doing that as I move beyond Colorado College and the state. All they have asked is that I remember their support and pay it back to the successive waves of incoming scholars, whom I am ecstatic to begin aiding.” 

Rask is on the path to become a professor of Economics. Next year he will be working at Yale University as a predoctoral fellow for two years, before applying to PhD programs. Eventually, Rask wants to teach and conduct research. He gives special thanks to the following professors and advisers who influenced him throughout his college career: Math and Computer Science Professor Minho Kim, Political Science Professor Timothy Fuller, Economics and Business Professor Dan Johnson, and Student Adviser and Boettcher mentor Gretchen Wardell.