The Alex McGuiggan Scholarship was first awarded in Spring 2010 in memory of Alex McGuiggan, an English major at the University of Colorado«Ƶ. It recognizes the achievements of an undergraduate English major studying creative writing, with a preference for students whose strength is in writing poetry. Alex was an astute observer of human behavior known for his wry sense of humor, mastery of the art of friendship, and unwavering commitment to following his own path. The ideal Alex McGuiggan scholar should share not only Alex’s passion for writing and other forms of creative expression, but also these personal attributes. The $2,000 award is to be applied to student tuition.
Alex
Alex was a sophomore at CU «Ƶ who had turned 20 shortly before he died in February 2009. A Chancellor’s Achievement Scholarship recipient, Alex had come to CU in the fall of 2007 unsure of exactly what he wanted to study, much less what career he wanted to pursue. He was eager to begin his journey, however, even if it required geographic separation from his family and long-time friends.
As a high school student in the Chicago area, Alex studied the guitar intensely, striving to master it and emulate classic rock and blues guitarists such as Robby Krieger, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and B.B. King among others. He spent countless hours jamming with friends, ultimately transposing his passion into a senior project for which he wrote and recorded his own original music.
As a CU student, Alex continued to share music discoveries and witty stories with his close friends studying at colleges and universities across the country. At the same time, he cultivated a close-knit group of fellow “Willville” denizens. Alex loved «Ƶ – its culture, its natural beauty, and of course, his new friends. No matter how much schoolwork he had, or how tough an exam he’d been through, he would gaze up at the Flatirons (which he termed “my mountains”) and feel at peace.
Like many CU students, Alex sampled a broad range of courses in his search for a college major. “Music in American Culture” and “Introduction to Film Studies” expanded his formal knowledge of these modes of creative expression. Introductory courses in Philosophy and Psychology intrigued Alex intellectually but didn’t spark his creative interests. The turning point came in thefall of his sophomore year when Alex enrolled in “Introduction to Poetry Workshop” with Instructor Serena Chopra: he discovered that poetry had simultaneously ignited both his creative and academic passions. Over dinner on Parents’ Weekend, Alex was brimming with excitement about the Poetry Workshop, feverishly describing to his parents everything he was learning and how Serena had encouraged him to apply to the English Department’s Creative Writing Program. Alex’s parents were initially caught off guard by his choice to major in English, given his preference throughout high school for video game controllers over books. Alex’s tastes had begun to mature at CU, however. He had developed a sophisticated – if esoteric – personal reading list comprised of people and events from the 1950s and 1960s. Then Serena challenged Alex to expand beyond the Beats to the French Romantics. Heeding the recommendation, he became entranced by Baudelaire, aڱâԱܰ (observer of the Parisian streets) who, in Serena’s words, “seamlessly unites sight — what he was literally seeing — with a deep and often quiet philosophy.” In retrospect, the connection between Alex’s newfound love of poetry and his fascination with music and its complex rhythms seems obvious. Scroll down to read Alex’s poem,The Royal Arch from Rise, composed for his Introduction to Poetry Workshop class.
Alex’s life ended unexpectedly early in spring semester of his sophomore year. He was anxious to hit the slopes that winter, having missed all of freshman year's action to knee surgery. His spring semester courses included “Masterpieces of American Literature” with David Rothman, for which the class was reading “Bartleby the Scrivener,” Herman Melville’s short story. He had worked hard on his analysis of Bartleby, which he submitted on Thursday, February 19. That following Saturday night Alex made a tragic decision, which would inevitably cost him his life. On Tuesday, when David Rothman learned of Alex’s death, he requested permission to share Alex’s essay with his class that afternoon. He did not tell the students that Alex had died — only that the essay had been written by a member of their class and they should discuss it. In David’s words, “the students had a wonderful conversation that proceeded to move from Alex’s interpretation to the story itself. Recognizing who Alex was, what he cared about, and what he achieved is a way to convey those values to other students. The humanities are about what it means to be a human being, and students can come to understand that all the more powerfully by encountering his work. They glean an important gift from his painfully young passing.”
ճAlex McGuiggan Scholarship in Creating Writingwas established by the parents of Alex’s closest friends from junior high and high school, who had become close family friends. Shortly before Christmas of 2009, these families invited Alex’s parents and sister to a holiday gathering. After dinner, they proposed a toast in memory of Alex, but the tribute wasn't finished. To the astonishment of Alex’s family, they were handed documents establishing an endowment fund, administered through the CU Foundation, to support The Alex McGuiggan Scholarship. These families loved Alex, and they wanted his name associated with a scholarship that would allow CU undergraduate students with similar dreams to his to pursue their passions.