The six scholarship recipients who attended the March convention in Traverse City, from left to right, are Julia Smith, Kayle Parker, Donnie Palmer, Amanda Lenard, Elissa Kwapis and Ryan Foguth.

Thanks to a generous contribution from J-5 Corporation from Mill Valley, California, MBHA handed out $4,000
in scholarships to eight recipients ($500 each) at the annual convention held in Traverse City’s Park Place
Hotel March 20.

J-5 is an oil and gas exploration company that does business
in Michigan. Half of the money handed out for scholarships came from J-5’s contribution, half from MBHA’s
treasury.

MBHA has been encouraging the pursuit of higher education since 2001 through its scholarship program.
The scholarships are named for past president and current board member Bill Walker from Bloomfield Hills.
Board member and past president Rusty Huff is on the MBHA scholarship screening committee and he made the presentation of scholarships at the convention.
Six of the eight recipients were able to make it to the banquet. All took their turn at the podium after Rusty announced each name to tell the audience
what school they would be attending and what their major would be.
Ryan Foguth was the first one up. He will be attending Kirtland Community College and will be an associate in the arts program. Elissa Kwapis took a turn
at the microphone next. She plans on attending Central Michigan University to study veterinary medicine.
The next two recipients; Amanda Lenard and Donnie Palmer, both plan on going to Michigan Technological University in Houghton to study chemical engineering.
Kayle Parker was next in line and she will be going to classes at Oakland University to study nursing. Julia Smith has her sights set on Michigan State University where she will be majoring in education.
The two scholarship winners who could not attend the banquet are Julia Bowden and Jacob Gulick. Bowden has signed up for her second year of classes
in nursing at Michigan State University. Gulick will be going to Central Michigan University to study biomedical sciences.

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Updated 5/18/10