COLUMBIA, Mo. — Back in February the name Gary Pinkel didn’t mean anything to Nikkita Dismuke when her guidance counselor told her about a scholarship application for something called the GP M.A.D.E. Foundation.
“I Googled him a couple times and I’d see articles about him being the football coach at Mizzou,” said Dismuke, a senior at Central Visual and Performing Arts. “I was like, this cannot be the right person. But I kept getting the same thing. I was so shocked.”
She was even more surprised on April 2. That day, 25 finalists for the academic scholarship were asked to take part in a Zoom interview as part of the application process.