Lawrenceville resident wins $25,000 Daughters of the American Revolution scholarship

For the 250th anniversary of the United States, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), a non-profit organization founded in 1890 by women who were descendants of Revolutionary War soldiers, awarded 10 college students a $25,000 scholarship each. Julia Ciccone, a rising junior at Gettysburg College and a New Jersey native, was one of those students.

“My love of history started when I was young,” said Julia. Growing up in Lawrenceville, NJ, she often visited museums and historic sites with her parents, where she was first introduced to her future passion: history. 

At the end of her freshman year of high school, her dad joined the board of the local historical society, which sought greater youth engagement. This is where Julia’s service to the community really began, when she started the Lawrence Junior Historians—a youth group associated with the society. 

One of the projects the Junior Historians worked on was the revitalization of the Princessville Cemetery, an African-American cemetery near Lewisville Road, the first African-American community in Lawrence, founded by formerly enslaved people in the 1840s.

The cemetery was a part of the Princessville African Methodist Episcopal Church. When the congregation moved, the cemetery was left; hardly anyone attempted to clean it up. The names on some of the headstones were hardly visible, including those of Black Civil War veterans.

Julia spearheaded the clean-up: “I said, we need to do something about this because these are people and their graves should be respected.” 

While Julia may not be with the Junior Historians anymore, since she graduated from high school, she left a legacy. The Junior Historians have continued the clean-up: “They’re working with the local Boy Scout troop, which is really awesome because we’re getting more organizations involved. We have the local gardening club coming in and doing the flower bed,” said Julia.

Even though she’s moved on to the next stage of her life, she still volunteers with the local historical society when she can, which is how she found out about the scholarship. This past December, Julia was working on a project at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia when a former teacher recommended the DAR scholarship to her. 

She applied in January; she wrote about her work with the Junior Historians, the Princessville cemetery, and her most recent project, the month prior. Julia didn’t think she would get it: “But I was like, I fit the qualifications. I have the GPA; I’m majoring in history,” she shared. She forgot about the application for months until spring came.

“I remember it was like 8 o’clock in the morning on a Wednesday. And I don’t remember the exact date, but it was during my finals week.” She didn’t have exams that day, but while studying, she got a notification from the DAR with a congratulatory message. “I think I read the email like five times just to confirm that I was reading the right thing,” adding, “I just called [my mom], and I was like screaming. I got the DAR scholarship!”

History is Julia’s passion. “Being one of 10 people is kind of crazy. And I think for me, it feels like all the things I worked up to were impactful enough for me to get the scholarship. And yet, when I was doing them, I wasn’t thinking, I have to do this to get X, Y, and Z. I was doing it because I enjoyed it.”