Lee and Virginia Evans

The National Housing Endowment, the philanthropic arm of NAHB, recently announced the recipients of the 2011-2012 Lee S. Evans/National Housing Endowment Scholarship, which is awarded to exemplary students who major in construction-related fields.

This year, the Lee S. Evans Scholarship Committee awarded $49,000 to nine worthy students, including Nathan Tew, a junior at Brigham Young University, who received the largest scholarship ever awarded by the committee.

“Educated leaders in the home building industry will be needed to build despite harsh economic times,” Tew wrote in his scholarship application. “We are not just people hitting nails with hammers, we are defining our society and creating capital.”

The scholarship recipients are:

• Jessica Connors, a sophomore at the University of California, Los Angeles majoring in civil engineering. Connors also is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers.
  
  
• Richard Coutu, a junior at Florida State College at Jacksonville majoring in construction management. Coutu is president of the college’s NAHB Student Chapter and Future Builders of America chapter. He volunteers for Habitat for Humanity projects and wants to teach construction courses once he graduates.
  
  
• Douglas Dandurand, a junior at Illinois State University majoring in construction management. He was president of his NAHB Student Chapter in 2009-2010 and has held several summer construction jobs while working his way through school.
  
  
• Gretchen Heberling, a junior at the University of Wyoming majoring in architectural engineering. Last year, she worked on an EPSCoR grant for the National Science Foundation to research a guide for light industrial micro-business.
  
  
• Derek Jackson, a senior at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan., majoring in construction management. He is president of the university’s NAHB Student Chapter and participated in the Residential Construction Management Competition at the NAHB International Builders’ Show last month.
  
  
• Brittany Malnar, a sophomore at Georgia Institute of Technology majoring in building construction and a member of the school’s NAHB Student Chapter. She is focusing her studies on remodeling and “establishing harmony between old structures and new technologies.”
  
  
• Shelly Schlagel, a junior at Pittsburg State University majoring in interior design. She is a member of the NAHB Student Chapter and participated in the Residential Construction Management Competition at IBS. She also is president of the university’s chapter of the International Interior Design Association.
  
  
• Nathan Tew, a junior at Brigham Young University-Idaho majoring in construction management. Active in his university’s NAHB Student Chapter, he participated in the Residential Construction Management Competition at IBS. He is also an Eagle Scout.
  
  
• Jordan Tittlefitz, a senior at Brigham Young University majoring in construction management. He is an active member of the university’s NAHB Student Chapter and volunteers with Habitat for Humanity.

The scholarship determinations were made by the Evans Scholarship Committee, which included Brenda Eid, founder of BJ Eid Associates; Carole Jones, of Robert R. Jones Associates; William Hauke, president of Hauke Building Supply; Mark Lee Levine, director and professor of the Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management at the University of Denver; and Chuck Shinn, of Shinn Associates.

More Endowment Scholarship Programs

The endowment awards more than $300,000 each year to hundreds of students pursuing careers in residential construction and related fields.

For more information on these scholarships, visit the endowment website at www.nationalhousingendowment.org.