Albion Alumni Foundation honors donors, scholarship winners

Photos provided by Alumni Foundation – The Albion Alumni Foundation held a reception last week that included Maurice and Courtenay Hoag, who have endowed a scholarship that awards $10,500 for over four years to students majoring in chemical engineering. Pictured, from left, includes Maurice Hoag, Kyler McQuillan, Trevor Hadick and Courtenay Hoag.

WATERPORT – The Albion High School Alumni Foundation held the first of what it hopes will become an annual event to honor its scholarship donors and recipients.

For this inaugural event, held at the home of Chris and Pat Haines last Wednesday, the Foundation Board of Directors honored the donors and recipients of both its largest scholarship and its most recently added scholarships.

This event was a unique opportunity for the donors and recipients to have one-on-one time meeting and talking with each other.

Maurice and Courtenay Hoag attended the event and met two recipients of a $10,500 scholarship that provides $2,625 annually to the students who major in chemical engineering. Trevor Haddick and Kyler McQuillan are both recipients.

“I was truly honored to tell him all the things that the scholarship has allowed me to achieve,” said Trevor Hadick, a student at Carnegie Mellon University. “Talking with Mo was remarkable. Getting to hear about his experiences in the field and stories regarding his world travels reminded me that you never know what the world has in store for you.”

The Panek family is funding two scholarships, including the John Panek Memorial Scholarship in honor of Jim Panek’s father. Kerry and Jim Panek are pictured with the scholarship winner, Sara Millspaugh.

Brenda McQuillan, Kyler’s mother, also was grateful to meet the Hoags and thank them for the generous scholarship.

“It was a pleasure to meet the man who is so graciously supporting Kyler’s college education through a scholarship,” Brenda McQuillan said. “Mr. Hoag shared the experiences he had throughout his 30-year career as a chemical engineer. Mr. Hoag’s enjoyment of working in this field and his resulting success were inspiring for Kyler to learn about first hand. Kyler walked away from this meeting even more excited about the education that lies ahead of him and his future career in the field of chemical engineering.”

Jim and Kerry Panek of Albion attended the event to represent two scholarships funded by the Panek family. The John Panek Memorial Scholarship ($1,000) is going to Sara Millspaugh, who is attending Cornell University.

Jayne Bannister, who is heading to Kansas State University, received the $1,000 Panek Family Farm Agriculture Scholarship.