A Chatham-Kent Secondary School student will have an easier time paying tuition after winning a $2,500 scholarship to go towards his post-secondary studies this fall.
Logan Butler was the recipient of the Angelo Ligori Engineering Scholarship, awarded by Greenfield Global Inc, Chatham. Butler applied for the scholarship by writing a 700-word essay on what he imagines the future of biofuels to be and his thoughts on the topic.
"That took a lot of research on my end to try and find out exactly what I was going to write about and what my opinions were. Eventually, it came out in a, hopefully, pretty good essay," he said.
Butler will be using the funds towards tuition when he starts at Carleton University in September, studying aerospace engineering. Butler's mother, Kelly Ryall, was on hand for the cheque presentation on Wednesday afternoon at Greenfield Global's local plant. She said she was very proud to see all his hard work pay off.
"Engineering is an expensive program and I think its four or five years. We have three kids so its nice to get a little help along the way," said Ryall.
Plant manager and the namesake of the scholarship, Angelo Ligori, explained that the grant is a way to encourage the younger generation of engineering hopefuls.
"Canada is number one in that field of renewable energy and we want to stay that way," explained Ligori. "Part of it is growing the next generation, just like we do with technology, we want to have young minds like Logan eventually joins the team."
Besides a standout essay, Ligori said the scholarship committee looks academics and reference letters. He said Butler's essay stood out for its creativity and integrity. Butler was one of five applicants vying for the scholarship. He admitted that he wasn't expecting to hear anything back after sending in his essay and encourages all future post-secondary students to try their hand at applying for scholarships.
"Apply for everything and anything because you never know what you might get," said Butler. "Always try your best to try and go for these scholarships because they're an enormous help."