Jefferson Arts Committee gives scholarship

The Jefferson Arts Committee awarded its 2015 annual scholarship to Madison Rayne McNabb to financially assist her in furthering her education at Pratt Institute in New York, where she is pursuing a BFA in film.

She has devoted time and energy in educating herself about filmmaking since she was 11 years old, resulting in her present career goal to create visual media that leaves the viewer with empathy towards the subject.

A 2015 graduate of the Jefferson Township High School, Pratt was an honor roll student ranking 112 out of 229 students with a weighted GPA of 3.2, a member of the French Honors Society, a Junior Varsity basketball player, an active member of Student Council, and videographer for the girls' varsity Soccer team. During her high school career, she was the recipient of several school awards including The Most Improved Student, Student of the Month for Video Production, and The Presidential Award.

Over the years, she volunteered at Jefferson Township Day manning business vendor booths, volunteered as a coach for youth cheerleading, and became involved in her late brother's foundation "Dreams for Dakota." She continues to work as a caregiver and front desk person at The Dawg House in Lake Hopatcong.

While in high school and to date, Pratt continues pursuing her interest in filmmaking holding the position of head videographer at Acting-A-Part in Sparta involved in numerous aspects of this film and acting studio's operations adding to her experience in filming, editing, and working as a team member. In 2014, she participated in a summer internship with Jefferson Highlights Community TV as an interviewer and videographer, and she assisted in creating a drug awareness website http://www.jeffersonteam.org/. Pratt was successful in having a cinematography piece screen at the County College of Morris which was singled out and reviewed by MTV Productions, and she created short films which opened at local movie theatres to multiple audiences.