Hoover chamber gives out $16,500 in scholarships to 2017 graduates

The Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce today handed out $16,500 worth of scholarships to four students from Hoover and Spain Park high schools.

Spain Park senior Sungkyung “Luci” Shin received the $4,500 Matthew & Dr. Abby Allen Scholarship to help her attend the University of Alabama at Birmingham and study dentistry. The Allens donated $2,500 for that scholarship, and the Hoover chamber board of directors contributed another $2,000.

Three other students received $4,000 each: Spain Park senior Madeleine Bell-Colpack (headed to the University of Montevallo to study the environment) and Hoover High seniors Kyndrah Moore (going to UAB to study mass communications) and Julia Sasser (going to Troy University to study nursing).

Here is a bit more about each of the scholarship recipients, according to information provided by the chamber:

• Sungkyung “Luci” Shin — She moved from Korea to the United States when she was 13, first living in Georgia until coming to Alabama for this school year. Her father is pastor of the Korean Presbyterian Church, where she is the pianist and translates the Korean sermons to English for English-speaking members. She has a 4.14 GPA and has the highest SAT score (1,330) of the Spain Park Class of 2017. She was on the tennis, swim and cross-country teams at Spain Park, was a homecoming princess, was student council treasurer, president of the Rotary Interact Club and a member of the National Honor Society and Beta Club. She also played cello for the Armstrong Atlanta Youth Orchestra, Olathe Symphony Orchestra and Emporia State University Orchestra, and she worked in a nail salon while taking five Advanced Placement classes. She wants to be a dentist for poor third-world countries.
• Madeleine Bell-Colpack — She spent four years in the law academy at Spain Park and was on the mock trial team as a defense attorney. She also took advanced theater and competed in the state Trumbauer Festival for three years. She also was involved in the Diamond Dolls support group for the Spain Park baseball team. She wants to work for timber companies, making their clear-cutting practices sustainable, and she wants to help pass laws to require green space in all growing cities.
• Kyndrah Moore — She has been involved in the Hoover High law academy and was on the mock trial team for two years. She was in the math and Spanish honor societies and was class president in the Student Government Association, and she has tutored math students the past two years. Her mother died last year, and she has worked more than 30 hours per week with her father at Jake’s Soul Food Restaurant while maintaining good grades and many school activities.
• Julia Sasser — She was a junior and senior class officer and has served on numerous committees to help with the prom, an annual 3K race and The Forgotten Initiative to help foster children. She was on the Hoover swim and dive team and Student Athlete Advisory Committee and was in the Hoover Girls Club, National Honor Society, National Junior Honor Society and Hoover Belles. She volunteered with The Wellhouse ministry to help victims of sexual exploitation and sex trafficking and was a leader on the Hoover High School prayer team. She also has served as a swim coach, instructor and lifeguard at the Hoover YMCA and takes care of children after school to earn extra money. She also had an internship to work with cancer patients at the Kirklin Clinic through the Hoover High School health care academy.

Paul Dangel, the chamber’s scholarship committee chairman, said the chamber increased its scholarship amounts this year from $1,500 to at least $4,000 to have more of an impact in helping students.

Scholarship applicants had to have a parent work for either the city of Hoover or a company that is an active member of the chamber and must attend a university in the state of Alabama and have an entrepreneurial spirit, Dangel said. They also had to write essays describing what the chamber means to the business community in Hoover and what the business community has meant to them, he said.

Thirty students submitted applicants, and eight were selected for interviews to narrow it down to the final four, he said.

The Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce has given out more than $200,000 in scholarships over the years, according to the chamber website.