A Bowling Green 17-year-old was awarded a $5,000 scholarship Friday by Morris Jewelry.

Chaney Rose, daughter of Jeff and Stacey Rose, received the $5,000 from Mike Barron, former owner of Morris Jewelery, for the Frank Maier Scholarship. 

The scholarship is open to juniors and seniors in Warren County high schools or home schools and drew 19 participants.

Maier was a German immigrant who first settled in Louisville and learned the art of jewelry making, then traveled to Bowling Green to found Maier Jewelers in 1881, Barron said. The name was changed to Morris Jewelers in 1910. Jim Steen is the new owner.

The essay competition, which drew 19 participants, focused on selected historical buildings in Bowling Green and their potential for reuse: the Galloway Motors Building at 601 State St.; International Order of Odd Fellows Building at 427 Park Row; the Pushin Building at 400 E. Main St.; the Capitol Arts Theater at 416 E. Main St.; and the Taylor Chapel Building at 314 E. Seventh St.

Rose wrote her essay on how the Galloway Motors building could host a bicycle rental and repair facility. Jeff Rose holds a record for a north-south 210-mile bicycle trek in 12 hours and 44 minutes near Ky. 127 in May 2012.

A second component to the competition was that participants were required to write their essays in cursive.

“I always write my notes in cursive,” Rose said. Writing the essay in cursive did take a while, she said, especially when she made a mistake and had to start a page over from scratch. 

Barron, Ron Murphy, executive director of the DRA, and Steen attended the award presentation at the jewelry store. Barron said he hopes to have the students add a sonnet to their writing requirements for next year’s competition. Rose recently attended the Governor’s Scholars Program and will be participating in The Distinguished Young Women Program on Sept. 7. She plays the violin and teaches violin for the Clay Sound Fine Arts Academy. She started playing the violin when she was 4 years old, her father said.

Rose has two sisters, Annalee, 15, a freshman at South Warren High School, and Trinity, 9, a fourth-grader at Holy Trinity Lutheran School. Rose said she learned cursive writing at the Bowling Green Christian Academy. She is looking into further education at Western Kentucky University, the University of Kentucky or Lipscomb University in Nashville. She plans to study to be a nurse.

— Chuck Mason covers education. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/bgdnschools or visit bgdailynews.com.