Garden Valley Technologies is pleased to announce that three local students have been awarded scholarships through the MTA and FRS Scholarship Programs.
The Minnesota Telecom Alliance (MTA) announced that they received 123 scholarship applications from across the state and two winning students are from the Garden Valley Technologies service area. Paige Michalski (Warren-Alvarado-Oslo High School) and Kimberly Hitchen (Fertile-Beltrami High School) were selected to receive $2,000 scholarships for the 2023-2024 academic year from the Minnesota Telecom Alliance Foundation.
Page Michalski is graduating from Warren-Alvarado-Oslo High School and plans to attend Oregon State University. She is the daughter of Carrie & Jay Michalski. Kimberly Hitchen is graduating from Fertile-Beltrami High School and plans to attend the University of North Dakota. She is the daughter of Chad and Kari Hitchen.
To be eligible for the MTA scholarship, applicants must be attending post-secondary education at either a university, college, or technical college, be a Minnesota resident, and the applicant’s family must subscribe to at least one service from a MTA member company; in this case, Garden Valley Technologies. The panel reviewed each application and scored the applications based on the applicants’ grades, academic achievements and extra-curricular activities.
In addition, McKenna Melbo of Bagley has received a $2500 scholarship through the Foundation for Rural Service (FRS). Founded in 1994, FRS is the philanthropic arm of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, of which Garden Valley Technologies is a member.
The FRS Scholarship Program awards one-time scholarships to students from rural communities for their first year of college, university, or vocational-technical school. Each student is sponsored by an NTCA member company that also contributes a portion of the scholarship award. This year FRS awarded a total of $124,000 for 42 scholarships to students across the country.
In awarding these scholarships, Tim Brinkman, CEO and General Manager of GVT said, “We are happy to have this chance to make an investment in these students’ college education. Rural communities need educated and talented young people to be our leaders of the future. It makes us all proud at Garden Valley Technologies when three of the winners are from our service area.”
Byron Ness, GVT Board Member, presents Kimberly Hitchen with a $2,000 MTA Scholarship.
Jim DeVries, GVT Board Member, presents Page Michalski with a $2,000 MTA Scholarship.
Al Paulson, GVT Board Member, presents McKenna Melbo with a $2,500 FRS Scholarship.
