BEMC Announces Winners of $5,000 Scholarships!
June 10, 2009: BEMC announced the first two winners of college scholarships under a new program introduced this year. The BEMC Scholarship Program awarded two (2) scholarships of $5,000 each to high school seniors, one from Brunswick County and one from Columbus County. The students competed on a combination of academic achievement, participation in community or school-related activities, SAT scores, letters of reference and submission of a 1,500 word essay on
“The trend toward developing renewable energy sources: what, where, when; and how it will effect my life and the lives of others in my county and state.” Judging for the competition was done by teams of educators at Brunswick and Southeastern Community Colleges.
Brianna Clifton of Whiteville High School was selected as the winner from Columbus County. Brianna is the daughter of Edward and Debra Clifton. She will be attending UNC-Wilmington in the fall, majoring in Psychology. In her essay, Brianna pointed out that North Carolina is one of the states paving the road to a greener planet by creating green jobs, with several initiatives on renewable energy sources, including wind turbines and bio-fuels production by both commercial companies and teaching programs at Brunswick and Southeastern Community Colleges. In her essay, she urges individual involvement in creating a greener planet: “Every person can make a choice which will help our county and our state lessen our reliance on non-renewable energy sources. Choosing a college closer to home, selecting a course of study, driving an energy efficient vehicle, setting the thermostat higher in the summer, limiting trips to the mall and buying locally are some of those choices.”
The Brunswick County scholarship winner is Jason Graffius, of North Brunswick High School. Jason is the son of Susan Graffius of Leland. At NC State, Jason is enrolled in the College of Engineering for computer sciences. In his essay, Jason observed that “Too often the question is asked, “Which type of renewable energy is best?” Well, there is no definite answer for that. The question that a potential renewable energy user should ask is, “What is the most effective form of renewable energy available for the conditions in my area?” He further commented “What we must do to achieve the best future for ourselves is first build infrastructure capable of supporting renewable energy sources. While we begin to use these sources, the new technologies will begin to improve the efficiency and power of the old stations.”
CEO Robert W. Leavitt, Jr. said, “BEMC wanted to extend our commitment to education and along with our Bright Ideas educational grants for K-12 teachers and specialized teaching programs like “Get Charged” for middle school students, and CFL Charlie’s Super Energy Savers for fourth graders, this gave us a way to help students beyond high school.” He continued, “We were very pleased at the response to our first year of this scholarship program. It was really interesting to get the perspective of young people on the future of renewable energy for our county, our state, our nation and our world. With students of the caliber of Brianna and Jason, we can look forward to a brighter world.”
