Congratulations to the 2019 Staurulakis Family Scholarship Winners

The 2019 winners of the Staurulakis Family Scholarships are four exceptional students, all with 4.0 GPAs, who have excelled academically, while participating in school activities, volunteering and working in their communities. The scholarships are given out as part of the Foundation for Rural Service (FRS) scholarship program. FRS awarded $ 125,000 for 54 scholarships to rural youth across the United States. These four students were selected to receive the $5,000 FRS Staurulakis Family Scholarships, which give preference to outstanding applicants with an interest in science, math, medicine, or engineering.

This year’s four winners (from left to right above) are:

Gabriel Gibson of Blocker, Okla.
Sponsored by Canadian Valley in Crowder, Okla.
Gabriel will be his class’s Valedictorian and plans to attend Eastern Oklahoma State College this fall, where he will study pre-dentistry. In high school, he participated in music, show choir, student council, Business Professionals of America and the Academic Team. In his free time, Gabriel works on his family’s ranch and learned how to artificially inseminate cows so that his family could breed award-winning Red Angus and Hereford cattle.

Elor Mayan of Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Sponsored by Horry Telephone Company in Conway, S.C.
Graduating at the top of his class, Elor will attend the University of South Carolina in the fall and plans to study nursing. Elor has been very active in the community, volunteering more than 300 hours in the last year, including with Hurricane Florence relief efforts. He plans to return to a rural community to provide quality care to an area with limited access to health services.

Kenneth Stier of Greensburg, Ind.
Sponsored by Enhanced Telecommunications in Sunman, Ind.
Kenneth also will graduate at the top of his class. He is very active in his community and church. He spearheaded a project to bring fiber connections to his town of 130 people by creating flyers and brochures that he then distributed to the entire town. He met ETC’s goal of 60 households and the telco is deploying fiber to the town. Kenneth plans to study Mechanical Engineering at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC) this fall.

Savannah Burris of Holyoke, Col.
Sponsored by Phillips County Telco in Holyoke, Col.
Savannah maintained academic excellence while participating in several sports and clubs, volunteering at her church and other local organizations, cleaning up local highways, coordinating Veteran’s Day breakfasts for her community, and running her own pet care business. Her experiences working at the local nursing and rehab center have inspired her to study nursing at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs this fall.

These scholarships were established as part of JSI’s 50th Anniversary celebration in 2012 in honor of Manny and Leo’s parents, John and Chresanthe Staurulakis, and continue each year as part of the FRS scholarship program. FRS scholarship recipients are selected by an independent team of reviewers from the education field. To be eligible, recipients must be sponsored by a NTCA member company, and must indicate a desire to return to their rural communities once their collegiate studies have been completed.

JSI does not administer these scholarships. The program is administered by the Foundation for Rural Service. More information about both the Staurulakis Family Scholarships and the FRS scholarship program can be found here – https://www.frs.org/programs/scholarships. The 2020 deadline is March 1, 2020.