Bernice E. Powell Endowed Scholarship Given to Worthy Student
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| For the past four years, Hannah Peterson, an American studies and history double major from Shreveport, La, has burned both ends of the candle as a student at Texas A&M University. She averages 15-plus hours a week as a student worker in the student financial aid office while volunteering in a myriad of organizations. Peterson is probably just the type of person Bernice E. Powell would have wanted to support.
Powell, from Houston, died in 1997 but stipulated in her will that a trust be created to endow a scholarship for the benefit of individuals who desired a college education and faced a financial need to adequately fund it. Roger Jenswold, trustee for the Powell Educational Trust, established a $40,000 endowed scholarship at Texas A&M University in the College of Liberal Arts. When Peterson began the 2005 fall semester, she did so as the first recipient of the Bernice E. Powell Endowed Scholarship. Peterson’s college career is a testament to hard work and service. An honors student, she wrote an Honors Research Fellow thesis as a junior. She is a member of five honor societies at Texas A&M. She has worked extensively for the Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship and the Opera and Performing Arts Society (OPAS). Peterson also has participated in two study abroad programs to France and Poland, and has assisted with campus international organizations. In addition to these many activities, Peterson has worked in the student financial office for four years and financed her education with the help of several academic scholarships. Peterson is quick to recognize the significance of the generosity of individuals such as Powell. “Financial gifts like this help so many students achieve their educational and professional goals. I am grateful to both Ms. Powell and to Mr. Jenswold. As a future teacher, I recognize that this is an opportunity to invest back into the lives of other students some of what has been invested in me.” In addition to earning her teacher certification in history, Peterson also plans to become certified to teach in gifted and talented education. She says she would like to take students on study abroad trips, coach UIL Decathlon and Quiz Bowl competitions, and then move into school counseling. On May 11, 2007, Hannah Peterson '06 was involved in a car accident and passed away in Palestine, Texas. Contact: 979-845-6294 office |
