Five employees and seven dependents get some relief on college tuition costs.
By Erin Rigik, Associate Editor.
Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores’ Learning With Love’s Scholarship Fund, now in its third year, has awarded $40,000 in scholarships to a number of Love’s employees and their dependents to assist with college costs for the 2011-2012 academic year.
This year a total of five Love’s employees and seven employee dependents were selected as recipients of monetary awards from the scholarship fund. The program offers a $2,000 award for employees attending college part-time or a $4,000 award for employees or dependents attending college full-time.
The scholarship recipients included Love’s employees: Steven Brazil, from Love’s in Albuquerque, N.M.; Sarah Aisha Naji, from Love’s in Rolla, Mo.; Stephanie Magana, from Love’s in Yuma, Ariz.; Mary Anne Miller, a corporate risk management analyst; and John Mark Dadulo, a corporate accounting clerk. The employee dependents selected by Loves include: Garrison Lawrence, Anthony Drakeford, Michael Waltman, Haley Withers, Andrew Dixon, Jacob Stepec and Lee Ann Sturm.
Established in 2009 by Tom and Judy Love, the Learning With Love’s Scholarship program was created to honor the couple’s entrepreneurial spirit and unending quest for learning. All employees and dependents who work at the Love family-owned entities, including Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, can apply. The program is administered by the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, which handles the application process, selection of recipients and disbursement of funds. This year, applications became available in March and applicants had until July to apply. The winners were announced last month.
While there were many individuals that applied, applicants had to meet a number of qualifications in order to be considered for one of the awards: the winners must be an employee or employee dependent of Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores or one of its affiliated operating entities; be eligible to attend or currently attending an academically accredited post-secondary institution; have a GPA of 2.0 or higher through high school and in subsequent post secondary studies; have unfunded academic expenses; and be pursing an education in areas of business and entrepreneurial studies.
“Our Love’s Affiliated Fund provides for the scholarship, and we’re glad the Oklahoma City Community Foundation is there to help us with this endeavor,” said Jenny Love Meyer, director of communications for Love’s Travel Stops, which operates more than 270 locations in 39 states. “Love’s wants to help our employees who are going to school or who have kids going to school. We realize that college is expensive, so the Love family wants to be sure we provide them with vehicles to help pay for their college education.”