South Adams students rewarded for hard work and pursuit

Authored by Jim Langham on May 21, 2010

South Adams senior Stuart Poulson is still at a loss for words to express his appreciation as a recipient of the Arthur and Gloria Muselman Scholarship presented at the senior awards night earlier this week.
The scholarship is a $30,000 presentation and broken up appropriately by year for a student attending Taylor University. Poulson said he was stunned when he learned that he was going to receive the prestigious award.
“This is such an honor; the Muselmans are such a prominent family who have contributed so much to our community,” said Poulson. “There’s no way to describe how this makes me feel. When you look at the fitness center, and all of the other ways that these people have been involved in Berne, this is really an honor.”
Poulson will be attending Taylor University to major in Christian Education, with a commitment of going into some type of Christian work.
“At the Campus Life Spring Break, I felt like God was leading me to do this,” said Poulson. “I want to go into some type of Christian ministry work. I am certain that this (scholarship) is God’s provision for that goal. I am thankful to the Muselmans and to God for allowing this to happen.”
One of the foundations of the local scholarship effort is the hard work of the South Adams Scholarship Committee. Those made possible through the committee this year include the Herman Bixler Memorial Scholarship (Tricia Crider), David Habegger Memorial Scholarship (Grace Dobler), Darryl Lehman Memorial Scholarship (Kyle Sprunger), and Howard Baumgartner Memorial Scholarship (Allison Beitler).
Also, the Paul Wagner Memorial Scholarship (Alyssa Sharp), Mark and Linda Settlemyre Scholarship (Braden Baer), Rose Yager-Kirchhofer Memorial Scholarship (Heath Moser), Medical Scholarship (Rachel Fahl), and Education Scholarship (Jaci Liechty).
Other South Adams Scholarship winners included: Allison Beitler, Tricia Crider, Tori Kistler, Brooks LeFever, Jaci Liechty, Amber Neuenschwander, Jansen Yoder, Braden Baer, Grace Dobler, Rachel Fahl, Matthew Fox, Sam Heckard, Heath Moser, Chris Myers, Stuart Poulson, Keri Sank, and Jacob Smith.
“We’ve had a very good year,” noted Kris Haines, who helps spearhead the South Adams scholarship drive. “We’ve started to incorporate more student involvement for the scholarships. Students and parents have worked concessions at basketball games; they could then apply that to their credit for scholarship applications.
“We’re trying to work it so they can take more of an active role in their scholarship work,” continued Haines. “They can actually play a part in all of this. It is not just a paper role of filling out applications. This gives them a chance to be active in securing their scholarships.”
Haines said that 46 students applied for scholarships through the South Adams committee. She noted that scholarships are awarded by a six-member evaluation committee which studies the application process. For the second year in a row, applications were passed on by the Adams County Foundation to help cut down the paperwork.
“We had lots of students get numerous scholarships,” said Haines. “This is not just something that happens at the last minute. Most of the winners started taking an active role their freshman year and worked towards this moment. They earned their scholarships.”
Other scholarship winners and recipients include: Amy Meyer Memorial Scholarship (Jaci Liechty), Thomas Neal Dull Memorial Baseball Scholarship (Heath Moser), Kenneth and Eula Van Emon Scholarship (Rebecca Amstutz), Adams County Community Foundation Scholarship (Chris Myers), K. Robert Ehrman Vocation Scholarship (Derek Kirchhofer, Kyle Peirce, Andrew Smith, Alyssa Sharp), Adams County Hospital Auxilliary Scholarship (Allison Beitler), and Scott Mathys Memorial Scholarship (Brad Hogg).
Also, Meshberger Brothers/Lica Scholarship (Tricia Crider), Ray A. Kroc Youth Achievement Award (Rachel Fahl), Moser Motor Ford/FFA Scholarship (Chris Myers), Ruth Neuenschwander Scholarship (Jacob Smith, Kyle Sprunger), Craig N. Amstutz Ag. Mechanics Scholarship (Derek Kirchhofer), Craig N. Amstutz FFA Scholarships (Kyle Sprunger, Chris Myers), Craig N. Amstutz Machine Trades Scholarship (Dustin Hunt) FFA Scholarships (Jon Keller, Jaci Liechty), and Geneva Proud Scholarships (Brittany Alig, Brooks LeFever, Tricia Crider).
Coni Mayer, executive director of the Adams County Community Foundation, emphasized that personal memorial scholarships are representative of an entire lifetime of service and commitment on behalf of those who are being memorialized.
“These personal scholarships represent the lives and feelings of those memorialized, their families, and all that they stood for,” said Mayer. “Some of these presentations are very emotional because remaining family members feel so deeply about them. It’s as though the people themselves are wishing to touch the lives of the recipients.”
Other scholarship recipients included: Harvest Land Co-op Scholarship (Jesse Bollenbacher, Ashton Cressman), U.S. Postal Scholarship (Allison Beitler), John Dubach Memorial Scholarship (Andrew Smith), S.A. Sports Booster Scholarships (Allison Beitler, Heath Moser), SACTA Scholarships (Braden Baer, Nathan Eddy, Alex Habegger, Jeremy Habegger, Stephen Horton), AMH Health Career Scholarship (Allison Beitler, Tricia Crider, Trista Lairson).
Department award winners included: Agriculture (Kyle Sprunger), Art (Jansen Yoder, Braden Baer), Band (Stephen Horton), Math (Sam Heckard, Grace Dobler), Business (Kyle Sprunger), Family and Consumer Science (Alyssa Sharp), Language Arts (Kyle Sprunger), Science (Rachel Fahl), Social Studies (Chris Myers), Machine Trades (Dustin Hunt), Project Lead the Way (Josh Rybolt), Auto Mechanics (Tim Steffen), Physical Education (Jim West, Andrew Smith), Choir (Rachel Fahl), Journalism (Jansen Yoder), and German (Jacob Smith).
Senior honor students include (in order): Allison Beitler, Keri Sank, Sam Heckard, Matthew Fox, Jacob Smith, Braden Baer, Rosa Hilty, Grace Dobler, and Jansen Yoder.

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