Focus

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."—Benjamin Franklin

Since 1986, The Roofing Industry Alliance for Progress has invested time and funding not only to educate the roofing industry but also the industry's youth through the Melvin Kruger Endowed Scholarship Program. Named for Melvin Kruger, a former NRCA president and CEO of L.E. Schwartz & Son Inc., Macon, Ga., the program has distributed $630,000 in scholarship funds to 115 students. The program is available to NRCA contractor and supplier members, their families and their employees who plan to pursue careers in the roofing or construction industries.

This year, the Alliance hopes to increase the scholarship fund and is seeking additional donors. The scholarship fund broadens community outreach and provides financial support for students continuing their education and training beyond high school.

Gifts to the scholarship program are tax-deductible. Any donation amount is welcome, but if you make a commitment of $50,000, you can choose to name the scholarship and participate in the recipient selection process. Those who provide funding to the Melvin Kruger Endowed Scholarship Program will be recognized on the Alliance's website (www.roofingindustryalliance.net), in its newsletter, and at Alliance and NRCA events.

A scholarship applicant must be a full-time employee or a dependent child or spouse of an employee employed by an NRCA member contractor or supplier.

Employee applicants must have a minimum of one year of full-time employment with their companies as of the application deadline date, and the company must have been a member in good standing of NRCA for a minimum of one year as of the application deadline date.

Dependent applicants must be high school seniors or graduates who plan to enroll or students who already are enrolled in a full-time undergraduate course of study directly related to a career in the roofing or construction industries at an accredited two- or four-year college, university or vocational-technical school for an entire academic year.

For more information about the scholarship program, go to www.roofingindustryalliance.net/programs/scholarship or contact Bennett Judson, the Alliance's executive director, at bjudson@nrca.net or (800) 323-9545, ext. 7513.

Ambika Puniani Bailey is editor of Professional Roofing and NRCA's vice president of communications and production.