First Student awards 5 students $2,000 scholarships

MAT-SU First Student awarded five, $2,000 scholarships to Valley students this year.

The recipients of 2014 First Student Scholarships were: Lindsay Durbin, Justin Moore, Delaney Mitchell, Zachary Neubauer and Scott Goza.

•Colony High graduate Durbin is attending the University of Alaska Anchorage working on a double major studying Early Childhood and Elementary Education. She is a teacher in training who has always been involved in the classroom, helping her mom since kindergarten. She also volunteered to teach kindergarten Sunday school and is involved in Vacation Bible School with her church.

•Moore, of Susitna Valley High School, is attending University of Alaska Fairbanks Community and Technical College’s Airframe and Power Plant certification program. He joined the Talkeetna Build-A-Plane Program and learned how to rivet, wire, sheet metal, upholster, fiberglass, weld and employ other techniques for aircraft repair. He is working on his pilot’s license and is attending college to pursue a career in aviation maintenance.

•Mitchell is attending the University of Alaska Anchorage this fall, and spring semester in South Africa through a UAA partnership program taking courses in international health at the University of Stellenbosch. He also will be working toward a medical degree. Mitchell participated in the early honors program of UAA at Alaska Middle College, completing his senior year with more than 20 college credits.

•Neubauer earned an Associates Degree six months before he graduated from Alaska Middle College high school with a 4.0 GPA. He is attending the University of Portland to study civil environmental engineering with a minor in chemistry.

•Goza graduated from Mat-Su Career and Technical High School with a 3.9 GPA; the top 10 percent of his class. A personal finance class sparked his interest in economics and finance and he is working on a degree in accounting at Southern Utah University. During his high school career, Goza was on the school’s Science Olympiad team, a member of the chess club and did well in Business Professionals of America competitions.