Staff Report

Two Suffolk high school graduates were among the winners of scholarship funds totaling $60,000 from the Tidewater Builders Association Scholarship Foundation.

TBA’s scholarship program, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is two-pronged. Ten academic scholarships were awarded based on academic excellence, community service and financial need; and six awards, plus two to high schools, were presented in the Young Designers’ Scholarship Competition.

Additionally this year, the Scholarship Foundation awarded $10,000 to the TBA Building Trades Academy, a training program for economically-disadvantaged people interested in learning a trade in electrical, plumbing, carpentry, heating and air conditioning, or apartment maintenance.

The following academic scholarship recipients will each receive a $5,000 four-year scholarship:

Jean-Louis Bil\u00E9, a graduate of Lakeland High School, plans to study engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He won the Jefferson Book Award, was named a National Adventure Scholar and was a member of the National Honor Society. He lettered in varsity soccer and was a member of the United States Achievement Academy. Bil\u00E9 attended the Virginia Governor’s School for Math, Science and Technology; was a Virginia Boy’s State delegate; and participated in the CIBA National High School Chemistry Institute in New York and in the Suffolk Leadership Academy.

Christina H. Maupin won the first-annual Howard M. & Nancye C. Weisberg Scholarship.

A graduate of Nansemond River High School, she plans to study English at the Christopher Newport University. Maupin won the National Student Council Award and The Virginian-Pilot &uot;Salute Our Youth&uot; Recognition. Her dream is to become a high school English teacher and cheerleading coach. Last September, Maupin was in a car accident while leaving school. She clung to life with brain damage, was air lifted to Sentara Norfolk General and remained in a coma for days. After weeks of rehabilitation to learn how to walk and talk again, Maupin returned to school Jan. 5, and was able to complete all class work and graduate with her class.

The TBA scholarship recipients were selected in May by a nine-member selection committee that spent four weeks reviewing more than 217 applications. The grants were presented during the TBA Scholarship Foundation 40-year anniversary celebration and awards ceremony recently.

Since 1965, the TBA Scholarship Foundation has provided more than $1 million in financial assistance to over 330 students.

In addition to the 10 new $5,000 grants and the six design-contest awards, TBA will continue to provide scholarship funding during the 2005-2006 academic year to 30 other past recipients, who have maintained at least a C average in order to have their scholarships renewed.

The Tidewater Builders Ass-ociation is a nonprofit trade organization, founded in 1953 to maintain high standards in the shelter industry, and to serve the professional needs of its 1,200-plus member firms in South Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore of Virginia. TBA also offers consumer information at www.tbaonline.org.