{"id":26560,"date":"2026-04-24T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=26560"},"modified":"2026-04-06T12:23:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:23:40","slug":"noelle-mcmorris-from-california-wins-10000-vegetarian-resource-group-2026-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2026\/04\/24\/noelle-mcmorris-from-california-wins-10000-vegetarian-resource-group-2026-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"NOELLE MCMORRIS FROM CALIFORNIA WINS $10,000 VEGETARIAN RESOURCE GROUP 2026 SCHOLARSHIP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Noelle-McMorrissmall-rotated.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-26561\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Noelle-McMorrissmall-rotated.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv8422030708msonormal\" style=\"line-height: 106%; margin: 0in 0in 8.0pt 0in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 106%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Noelle became a vegetarian in sixth grade. By ninth grade, she co-founded PETA2 Los Angeles County, while she was the only vegan in the club. For her AP capstone projects, she created a college-level research project on \u201cHow does an increased awareness of factory farming impact youth perceptions of meat-eating, concerns for animal welfare, and openness to change?\u201d Noelle spearheaded an event at Santa Monica Pier for Thanksgiving, partnering with Tofurky and others to give out dozens of whole vegan turkeys as well as hundreds of samples and recipe leaflets. Her club coordinated with the school district\u2019s superintendent and nutrition department to introduce daily vegan lunch options. The menu plan included a veggie burger, bean burrito bowl, and pasta with red sauce and plant-based sausage. This spring her club is collaborating with the Plant-Based Treaty to organize a plant-based event in Calabasas. Noelle is also a Girl Scout. As her troop only had Thin Mints as the vegan option, she would only sell that flavor since becoming vegan in eighth grade. But by working extra hard, she still always managed to meet her quota. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv8422030708msonormal\" style=\"line-height: 106%; margin: 0in 0in 8.0pt 0in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 106%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">In college Noelle hopes to continue her research about perceptions of factory farming while expanding her understanding of human-animal relationships, and to dive into strategies for social change or nutrition. In five years she hopes to have a Masters in Social Work.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv8422030708msonormal\" style=\"line-height: 106%; margin: 0in 0in 8.0pt 0in;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 106%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">The deadline for the VRG scholarship contest for high school seniors is February 20<sup>th<\/sup> of each year. For details, and to see other winners, go to\u00a0 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/student\/scholar.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 106%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: #0563c1;\">https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/student\/scholar.htm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv5178111166msonormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; margin-bottom: .0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">To support VRG\u2019s outreach to young people, donate at <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/vrg.org\/donate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">vrg.org\/donate<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv5178111166msonormal\" style=\"margin: 0in; margin-bottom: .0001pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Join in the USA at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/member\/cabdacae.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/member\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Noelle became a vegetarian in sixth grade. By ninth grade, she co-founded PETA2 Los Angeles County, while she was the only vegan in the club. For her AP capstone projects, she created a college-level research project on \u201cHow does an increased awareness of factory farming impact youth perceptions of meat-eating, concerns for animal welfare, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26562,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26560\/revisions\/26562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}