Friday the 13th was the luckiest of days for Brown County High School senior Chloee Robison.
On Dec. 13, she learned she had been selected as the 2020 Lilly Endowment Community Scholar, receiving a four-year, full-tuition scholarship to any Indiana college or university.
Despite a gloomy tarot card reading the night before, Robison and her best friend, Kara, sat at Casa Del Sol in Nashville counting down the minutes until 4 p.m. when the winner would receive a phone call.
Robison had had a countdown clock running since 4 a.m.
When Robison had read her cards the night before, death, sadness and disappointment were in front of her. The Lilly scholarship just was not in the cards, she thought.
Two minutes before 4 p.m., her phone rang and a Nashville number appeared.
“I was like, ‘That’s not it. It’s probably just a robocall.’ But I picked it up anyways,” she remembers.
It was Jenise Bohbrink, the development and program assistant for the foundation. She asked Robison if she had tissues nearby.
“I just started bawling. The best feeling ever was getting to tell my mom,” she said.
Her mom, Cathee Copper, was the first person she called.
“I was like, ‘Mom, it’s me.’ It just went dead silent. She goes, ‘Are you serious?’ I don’t know if she’s ever been prouder of me, so it just made me so happy. I will never forget that. That was crazy,” she said.
She then called her stepdad, Todd, next, and texted her sister, Bailee, who was at work.
Copper said this scholarship means so much financially to their family, knowing that Chloee will graduate college with very little debt. It also keeps her in Indiana for a bit longer, as Chloee dreams of living in South Korea eventually.
“It was really a blessing. We’re just so excited. We really didn’t expect it, so that makes it even more of a shock and surprise to us,” Copper said.
“She’s an amazing girl. I’m blessed to be her mother. She is such a hard worker. She puts 100 percent into everything she does. I‘m just very, very proud of her.”
South Korea dreaming
Winning the Lilly scholarship is the perfect conclusion for Robison’s high school career that has been filled with international travel, competing in national History Day competitions, and learning Korean in her spare time.
“My time in high school has been eventful. I think I’ve grown a lot as a person. I’ve definitely matured a lot,” she said.
Robison entered high school feeling as if she could conquer the world. Her eighth-grade year, she traveled to Washington, D.C., with her We the People team, where they placed second at nationals.
“I remember thinking, ‘We’re a Weeple. We’re going to conquer everything.’ Then, freshman year hits, and it’s like, ‘No, no you’re not,’” she said with a laugh.
“It’s really just been a period of growth for me. I am really grateful for everything the school has given me. I’ve gotten the close teacher relationships that I don’t think other kids would get at other schools. I’m really lucky for that.”
She not only enjoys reading and writing, but also learning math. Calculus is her favorite subject, which she credits to her teacher, Paige Burton, whom she describes as “the best teacher ever.”
“She just makes it so fun. Even when I know problems are really hard and everything, it just feels so awesome knowing you get a problem that’s really difficult right,” Robison said.
Robison loves to read and write. She works at the Brown County Public Library two days a week.
But a lot of her life revolves around school. When she does have free time, she’s hanging out with friends and watching Netflix. Korean and Chinese dramas are her favorite shows, along with “Friends” and “Glee.”
She also enjoys learning languages and has been teaching herself Korean the last couple of years. Her main goal in life is to live in South Korea one day.
She also writes fan fiction online about Korean pop bands. Her most popular fan fiction book has been read almost 800,000 times.
Her love for Korean pop music began her freshman year when her best friend, Evelyn Pool, introduced her to it.
“At the time, I knew that I wanted to travel the world. I knew I wanted to explore more beyond what Brown County has to offer, but I didn’t really know where I wanted to be. So when she introduced me kind of to the Korean culture and everything, I started realizing how much more open I could be with myself through that culture,” she said.
Robison said the culture in South Korea is more accepting of differences, like men wearing makeup.
“I love that there can be such a difference just across the globe from what people are used to,” she said.
In ninth grade, she began learning Korean. She learned to read and write it first. “Once you get the hang of it, it’s really easy,” she said.
“I just started falling more in love with it.”
Her love for Korean culture resulted in her taking a Stanford University class about Korean history and culture. She recently applied to study abroad in South Korea this summer and is now a semifinalist for that program, which would cover all of the costs.
History lover
Her love for history and culture doesn’t stop with South Korea. Since seventh grade, Robison has also competed in the National History Day competition four times. The last two years, she made it into the top 30.
The last three years, she won first place in the senior division for exhibits at the state competition. She received a $500 career award from History Day last year because she has competed many times.
She started competing in History Day in fifth grade. Her first exhibit was on the history of the Helmsburg Sock Factory and she ended up winning third at the regional competition that year.
“I remember being so elated that I had gotten that far on my first try. Looking back on it now, it was the worst exhibit ever. I just had printed random pages off and slapped them on my board, but I got third place at regionals,” she said.
When she competed again in seventh grade, she won first place in the junior division. She did not compete in sixth grade due to a busy schedule.
“That was when I kind of realized this is the path I want to take. I want to stick with History Day because it was something I could be successful in, I could learn a lot, and it allowed me to use my design skills. I love designing and planning out. It’s almost like scrapbooking, but major. I love history, so it just all came together,” Robison said.
She ended up going to nationals for the first time in seventh grade. Once in high school, Robison continued to advance to the national competition with the projects she researched on her own time.
Robison also recently returned from a trip overseas to the Netherlands with her teacher, Emily Lewellen. The two participated in a “Memorializing the Fallen” project through National History Day, researching World War II veteran Claude Doty from Greenwood.
Lewellen completed a similar project on her own last summer on fallen World War I soldier Aaron Ray Griffin in France. She guided Robison through the in-depth research project before they traveled overseas to see where Doty was buried.
“We started digging into his life and it was like I learned how to do more in-depth, primary research on historical things I hadn’t learned before. I think it was really a valuable experience, not only for me to get to travel to Amsterdam and the Netherlands — that was amazing — but I did learn a lot, and that was really cool,” Robison said.
Robison will compete as a high school student in one last National History Day competition this year.
Robison is also a five year Girl Scout member. She also volunteers with The Salvation Army, including helping with the annual toy drive. She also tutors her fellow classmates and underclassmen in math and history.
If that wasn’t enough for a 17-year-old’s resume, Robison has also competed in multiple spelling bees. As a seventh-grader, she won the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee to secure a spot at another national competition in Washington, D.C. She competed in spelling bees until eighth grade.
As a third-grader, Robison defeated her sister, Bailee, who is three years older than her, at the school-wide spelling bee. “That was just like a shining moment of my life at that point. I was so excited,” she said.
Lucky day
Not only did she find out she was the recipient of the full ride scholarship on an unlucky day for most, but three minutes after finding out she was the 2020 Lilly Endowment Community Scholar, Chloee also found out she had been accepted into Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
“I don’t know what they were saying,” Robison said about her tarot card reading.
Her first choice is Purdue University, but she won’t find out if she has been accepted there until later this month.
If she goes to Purdue, she plans to study environmental engineering. If she goes to Rose-Hulman it will be chemical engineering, since the school doesn’t offer environmental engineering as a major.
She also hasn’t ruled out a double major since her interests are wide ranging.
Her dream job is to work as an environmental engineer in either South Korea or China.
“I’m all about diversity. I love bringing in new perspectives, so I think that would really give me a world perspective on everything,” she said.
“I don’t know what traveling environmental engineering jobs there are, but you never know what you’ll find. I’ll keep my eyes open and see what opportunities come. Traveling is my favorite thing ever.”
If Robison could go back and talk to her freshman self, she would tell her — and other freshmen — to not worry about their class rank.
“You’re here to learn. If you don’t do perfectly in a class, it is totally fine. No one expects you to be perfect,” she said.
“I really want to thank my teachers for molding me into the person I am today.”
