I won my first scholarship!!

I got a very pleasant phone call today from Caron Kloser, director of the HNTB Transportation Board Corporation in downtown Milwaukee. She was calling to tell me that I won the HNTB scholarship on the state level and that I was moving on to the national competition!!!!

I had applied to two HNTB scholarships in early November. The applications were due to the HNTB offices by Friday, November 10th....I didn't postmark mine until the afternoon of Friday, November 10th, so I highly doubted the corporation would even open my envelope of information because it was going to arrive on their doorstep, late.

Since I was in Milwaukee, mailing within Milwaukee, it only took a day for it to be mailed to the HNTB, and probably got to their mailbox on Saturday the 11th, when the offices were closed. So, by Monday when the company would collect their mail, they would not know which day it all came in. ;)

Alas, I skated past the system and they took up my submission packet!

Anyway, I won one of the two scholarships!! It was the Sharon D. Banks Memorial Scholarship. I won the $500 state of WI award, and now I stand a chance at winning the $3,000 national one. Eeee, I am hopeful!

I am invited to go to the Board of Directors' Christmas social next week, where HNTB will present the $500 check to me.

And then, in early January, the results will come in to see who won the national competition!!!

Carol, my ambassador for the state of WI, told me I stand a pretty good chance of winning, since there are only 23 chapters of the HNTB nationwide. She commented that not every chapter submits a winner (is that because no one knows to even apply, in their chapters??), so I am holding my breath!

AND, I am also doing a happy dance, because I don't have to pay for next semester's textbooks out of my own pocket anymore!!

Thank you, HNTB!! I am honored. I've applied to 14 different scholarships in my day; every one from WPS to Mercedes Benz National Foundation. I have not won a single one of them.

So this $500 is a modest reminder that good things happen to good people.


:)