Meet Some of our

John H. Anglin Scholarship Recipients

 

Every year Kosciusko REMC gives away ten $1,000 John H. Anglin scholarships to members who are pursuing higher education.

This article is part of a series highlighting some of the John H. Anglin Scholarship recipients.

 

Tessa Graney

 

 

John H. Anglin Scholarship recipient Tessa Graney recently graduated from Warsaw Community High School and will be attending Ball State University in the fall. She plans to major in marketing and is considering a minor in international business. “I love the campus! I think it’s perfect for me,” Graney said. Given her accomplishments up until now, there is no doubt Graney is well-equipped for this new phase of life.

 

Graney has been an involved student. Over the years, she participated in National Honor Society, Golf, Kosciusko Youth Leadership Academy, Volleyball and Basketball. She thrived at WCHS and learned to persevere through those inevitable, challenging moments. 

 

“My senior year I had to take a speech class. That was definitely something challenging for me,” Graney admitted. “What I figured out is practice makes perfect for me.” Graney said she overcame her fears by practicing her speeches in front of family and friends.

 

When asked about a teacher or mentor who had been especially influential in her life, she immediately thought of her marketing teacher, Mr. Kuhn. “All the projects we did, I loved. He was the first person to introduce me to marketing. He was an amazing teacher,” said Graney.

 

While Graney didn’t have a specific interest in marketing when she signed up for the pathway class, a new passion was soon sparked. Graney said she hopes to solidify her career path through her business coursework at Ball State, but she already has some exciting ideas for potential careers. “A dream job of mine would be to follow around a sports team and do their personal relations. I would love that. I’ve always been interested in sports,” said Graney.

 

Graney works at the Parkview Warsaw YMCA as a swim instructor and lifeguard. She loves her job, live music, and Taylor Swift’s music, in particular. Graney shared that she has a personal goal to graduate debt free.

 

 “I took a finance class in high school, and it just opened my eyes to how important it is to save your money and be really responsible with your money,” reasoned Graney. She hopes to have an easier transition into college and beyond without debt weighing on her. For that reason, she says, she is thankful to be a recipient of the John H. Anglin scholarship. 

 

Shoshana Keim

 

 

Shoshana Keim is starting her sophomore year of college at Purdue University in West Lafayette and is studying biochemistry. Keim was the 2022 valedictorian for Whitko Jr/Sr High School. It was there that her interest in science blossomed. Keim credits two different teachers as motivators for her journey into the field. One of those was science teacher Robin Coffman. “She was just really good at what she did,” said Keim. Keim also acknowledged chemistry teacher Don Dyck as a great mentor to her. “They made me think; I can do this,” remembered Keim. 

 

Even for a high school valedictorian, acclimating to the rigors of life at Purdue was not an easy thing to do. “My biggest challenge was the transition to college. Trying to find your place in a huge school like Purdue can be very challenging. And being away from home was always hard,” Keim admitted.

 

Keim said thankfully she adjusted over the course of the year and is looking forward to going back to campus. In fact, she finished her second semester at Purdue with all A’s, and said she would rank that achievement, along with being a valedictorian, as her biggest educational victories. 

 

Keim decided to study biochemistry because she wants to work with herbicides and help farmers. She knows she can make an impact in agriculture and stay close to home. “In the future, I’d like to stay in Kosciusko County,” Keim said.

 

Keim has spent the summer interning at A&L labs in Fort Wayne. “They do plant soil testing for farmers. I’m working with plant samples and doing nitrogen analysis,” Keim explained. “It’s a great experience.” 

 

This coming semester, Keim will join a research lab at Purdue, where she will assist a professor who is studying a chemical that is present in black walnut trees. “He is studying why the chemical kills plants that try to grow around the black walnut trees,” explained Keim. She is excited to return to Purdue and dive into the project.

 

Keim expressed gratitude for the John H. Anglin scholarship and the monetary assistance it provides. “It means that it’s another year I can go to school without having to worry about finances,” she said. Keim said that, coming from a farming family, finances are something that are always on their minds.

 

The support from her community truly helps motivate Keim, she said. “Just knowing that other people believe in us… it’s nice. It’s kind of like ‘other people think you can do it, so you should do it.’”