What does it really take to earn the NJ Evans Golf Scholarship?

Persistence. Resilience. Initiative.

Imagine being 14 or 15 and discovering a chance to set up your future. A student-caddie program — where the pay is solid, and the reward could be life-changing: a substantial college scholarship.

You’re accepted. Assigned to a course. Given a goal: caddy 100 rounds — or loops — the benchmark that could unlock that opportunity. There is just one catch — you’ve never played golf. So, you learn. You study the game. You wake up at dawn, ride two buses from Newark, and spend every weekend and most of the summer chasing loops. Some days, you spend hours at the course and leave with nothing — no money, no progress. It’s discouraging.

But you keep showing up.

You work harder. You introduce yourself to the caddie manager. You arrive first, leave last. You prove day after day that you want this. And then, things change. You start getting loops. Sometimes two in one day. Golfers begin to request you by name. What once seemed impossible now feels within reach, which is what happened for Juah Awlime ’26, Kalani Durham ’26, Walter Lawrence ’26 and Ayman Zare ’26, student-caddies who were among the 10 NJ Evans Golf Scholars named this year, the result of a partnership between the  Western Golf Association Evans Scholars Foundation and the New Jersey Golf Caddie Scholarship Foundation.

The scholarship, valued at more than $125,000 over four years, is awarded on a strong student-caddie record, academic achievement, financial need and outstanding character. Among the 10 high schools represented, St. Benedict’s Prep was the only institution in New Jersey with multiple recipients. The quadruple achievement is hardly random; it’s the byproduct of a Benedict’s education that prioritizes agency and resilience in students.

‘You just have to work towards it’

“I think it shows how great St. Benedict’s is at developing students to grow and adapt to different situations and a new environment, and making sure that you are prepared for that environment,” said Ayman, who caddied since he was a UDI at Echo Lake Country Club. The course is a 20-minute drive from his home but can take up to 90-minutes to reach by public transportation. He was encouraged to do the program by classmates and Raymond Beier, his mentor through the nonprofit, Student Partner Alliance , that supports motivated high schoolers in Essex, Hudson and Union counties with mentorship and tuition assistance.

Ayman made a strong connection with Outside Operations Manager Daniel Pintauro at Echo Lake who would text him about available loops. Since he started the program as a sophomore, Ayman would do multiple loops in a day and caddied until early winter to make up ground. “The main challenge for me was balance in wanting to earn the scholarship and keeping up with studies.” But he also found the time spent on the golf course productive in other ways. Ayman loved being outdoors and meeting golfers established in their careers since he plans to study business management or economics at Rutgers University New Brunswick or Howard University. “I feel lucky to be able to have the opportunity,” he said.

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“We have it in us not to give up and to keep working at things to get the result we want.”

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Walter found an ally in Essex County Country Club caddie manager Ryan Mack. “He made a real effort to get me out there and would sometimes give me two loops a day. I’m really thankful to him for the scholarship and for pushing for me,” he stated. Walter, this year’s Senior Group Leader for the Boys Prep Division, plans to study business management at Howard University.

Kalani, too, made a strong connection with caddie manager Michael Moser at Baltusrol Golf Club. She learned about the program from College Placement and Career Development and following a few after-school training sessions, began caddying freshman year. “Meeting [Mr. Moser] helped me a lot. He was so supportive of me,” especially in the beginning when Kalani wasn’t getting loops every day. Mr. Moser was one of the reasons she kept going back.

Kalani, who will attend Howard University, didn’t keep the student-caddie opportunity to herself. She encouraged other Gray Bees to apply. “You just have to work towards it,” is her advice to students on how to keep going when they get discouraged. “The School builds up resilience in students, especially after we go through The Trail, the WAC and the WILD. We have it in us not to give up and to keep working at things to get the result that we want.”

For Kalani and Juah, the Evans Scholarship is especially meaningful since they are the first members in the Girls Prep Division to achieve it. Juah was the only female caddie at Montclair Golf Club, and now she’s fielding questions from Gray Bees interested in the program. “I think it will help push more girls outside of their comfort zone,” said Juah, who will major in nursing at Rutgers University New Brunswick. “I know a few girls who are now applying for the Spring Phase course.”

Caddying is a Spring Phase Project

Student caddying became a Spring Phase Project in 2022. It is the brainchild of Alex Benanti ’22, who participated in a student-caddie partnership The Hive forged with Baltusrol Golf Course in 2020. Mr. Benanti, the recipient of the New Jersey State Golf Association Scholarship, didn’t have enough time in the program to log 100 loops for the Evans Scholarship, but he wanted to ensure the Gray Bees behind him did. “If students caddied every day in May, they’d have 25 loops at the end of the month and be a quarter of the way there,” he reasoned. Now a senior at Rochester Institute of Technology, Mr. Benanti drafted a proposal for the course that was approved by Associate Headmaster for Academics Michelle Tuorto H’16.  

The class is overseen by Dean of College Placement and Career Development Susanne Mueller. Brian Bianchi, Vice President, Caddie Development at Western Golf Association Evans Scholars Foundation, provides an orientation for the Spring Phase Project and student-caddies get to their assigned golf course on their own each day.  Ayman, Walter, Kalani and Juah completed the class, and all say it was instrumental in helping them qualify for the Evans Scholarship. Since Spring Phase is in May, Ayman was able to accrue loops before he encountered more competition: college students who return home for summer to caddy. Though Kalani had caddied since freshman year, her loop count started to pick up during Spring Phase. The momentum continued into the summer, and qualifying for the Evans Scholarship became a realistic goal. “I felt like I learned a lot more, maybe because I had a lot more opportunities to go out,” she recalled.

Now that they’ve been named Evans Scholars, the seniors say the persistence and effort were worth it. “It definitely makes me feel like I can achieve anything,” said Juah. The fact that four Gray Bees attained the scholarship all comes back to the mantra every St. Benedict’s student learns from day one, “Benedict’s Hates a Quitter.”  “None of us would have gotten the scholarship if our attitude had been, ‘This is too hard, or it’s not working out,’” said Walter. “We all had to keep going.” He recalled a day early in his student-caddie career when he missed the bus to the course and wanted to go home because he wasn’t getting loops at the time. But then another bus rolled up, and Walter got on it. “I knew that if I didn’t show up, I definitely wasn’t getting the loop. And I knew how much the scholarship would impact my family and me. That pushed me to go every day.”