After suspending scholarship awards for two years to reorganize and review the mission and objectives of the Home Builders Association of Virginia’s Educational Foundation, the foundation trustees recently awarded two scholarships for the 2007 spring semester.
The scholarship recipients, Justin R. Dodd and M. Brendan Carroll, are third-year students at the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Both young men expressed an interest in pursuing a career in the home building segment of the construction industry.[img_assist|nid=1342|title=Scholarship Presentation|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=400|height=290]
In 2004, the HBAV Educational Foundation suspended its practice of awarding an annual scholarship to a graduating high school senior with plans to attend a Virginia-domiciled four-year institution of higher education. That same year the board of trustees of the HBAV Educational Foundation was reorganized. The mission statement was amended to enable the foundation to enhance the professionalism with our industry in Virginia and to better develop future leaders for the housing industry in the Commonwealth.
Appointed to staggered terms on the HBAV Educational Foundation board of trustees in 2004 were Chairman Doug Fahl (Northern Virginia), Vice Chairman John Stokely Jr. (Northern Virginia), Bob Flynn (Roanoke Regional), Michael Newsome (Tidewater), Preston Stallings (Blue Ridge), Deborah Tomlin (Southside), Randy Williams (Northern Virginia), Robin Newhouse (Fredericksburg), Vince Napolitano (Tidewater) and BenjaminGraham (Northern Virginia).
That same year, the newly appointed trustees reviewed the past scholarship patterns of the foundation and reviewed the HBAV Educational Foundation bylaws. Subsequently, they made recommended changes to the bylaws, which were later approved by the HBAV board of directors.
As a result, the foundation trustees were provided the flexibility to award scholarships to graduating high school seniors and upperclassmen. This new flexibility was designed to allow the foundation trustees to solicit candidates who had selected a course of study in a housing-related program. These
studies include building construction and design, land development, real estate, civil engineering, architecture or landscaping offered at Virginia colleges,
universities or similar institutions of learning.
Many of the previous HBAV Educational Foundation scholarship recipients, who were graduating high school seniors, had not yet determined their course of study when they were awarded a scholarship. The scholarships were awarded based solely on the students’ high school academic and community service record.
To enable the foundation to comply with its new mission statement — to enhance industry professionalism and build industry leaders — the foundation trustees made a decision to initially affiliate with the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia Tech. The school solicited applications from full-time rising juniors, and then recommended four candidates for the two springsemester, $2,500 scholarships from the HBAV Educational Foundation.
“The foundation trustees were very pleased to make the spring 2007 scholarship awards,†says Fahl. “We are back in business and we are looking forward to helping many more young Virginians in their pursuit of a housing-related higher education at Virginia’s many wonderful colleges and universities.â€
