Truckload Carriers Association Announces Winners of 2011-12 Scholarship Competition

Alexandria, Virginia:

For the 2011-12 school year, 25 deserving students will receive assistance funding their college educations because of the Truckload Carriers Association’s (TCA) Scholarship Fund. Since 1973, the fund has been providing scholarships to students associated with the truckload industry. Scholarship amounts this year range from $1,500 to $6,000 and will be awarded in two segments. The total dollar amount of the scholarships awarded is $65,000, an all-time high.

“We’re pleased that the tremendous support we received from TCA’s officers and member companies has allowed us to increase both the number of scholarships and the amount of those scholarships over last year,” said Tom McLeod, chairman of TCA’s Scholarship Fund and the president of McLeod Software Corporation of Birmingham, Ala. “TCA is a close-knit family, and we’re proud to be able to help individuals who are affiliated with our member companies. Whatever career paths these students choose, we know in the future they will continue to support the industry that has provided financial stability for them and their families.”

As per TCA’s requirements, each scholarship recipient is a college student attending an accredited four-year college or university, and is either the child, grandchild, or spouse of an employee, or an employee of a TCA member company, or the child, grandchild, or spouse of an independent contractor, or an independent contractor affiliated with a TCA member. In addition, each scholarship recipient has shown financial need, maintained full-time student status, and has demonstrated that he or she is an individual of high character and integrity.

The following students are the 2011-12 recipients of TCA’s scholarships:

Joanna Stawarz
Landstar Inway
Mount Prospect, Ill.
National Association of Independent Truckers Scholarship ($6,000)
Stawarz, a returning scholarship winner, is a rising junior at St. Xavier University in Chicago, Ill. She is majoring in nursing and minoring in psychology. Her goal is to eventually become a nurse practitioner and to help in a community where there is a shortage of medical professionals. Her step-father is a business capacity owner (BCO) for Landstar Inway. Stawarz accompanied him on a roadtrip to New York this past spring. “I was exhausted driving long hours, but I finally experienced what my dad goes through,” she said, noting that because of him, she has come to appreciate family time together and the importance of a strong work ethic.

Stephen McCall
Rowland Transportation
Gainesville, Fla.
Thomas Welby Scholarship ($3,000)
McCall, who is majoring in finance, has always loved stocks, economics, and financial markets. He states that his first enchantment with trucks came when he was given a Hess truck as a small boy. As he grew up, toy trucks continued to provide his most treasured entertainment. When his mother got a job with Rowland Transportation a few years ago, he was thrilled and has enjoyed learning about the complexity of the trucking pay structure and the different regulations that govern companies and drivers. According to McCall, his mother’s job “dramatically helped our family because, without it, we would still be in the quicksand of recession. Her job pulled us out of that, and I am very grateful.”

Austin Wilt
American Central Transport
Liberty, Mo.
Kai Norris Scholarship ($3,000)
Wilt, a returning TCA scholarship winner, is entering his sophomore year at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Ark. He is studying youth ministry and upon graduation hopes to become a youth pastor at a church. His father, who works in human resources for American Central Transport, has told Wilt many stories about how truck drivers sacrifice time away from their family and friends in order to haul goods across North America. These stories, he says, have reinforced to him how lucky he is to be able to spend time with his own family every day.

Eric Allen
Super Service LLC
Wyoming, Mich.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
This fall, Allen will be an incoming freshman at ITT-Technical Institute in Wyoming, Mich., where he will study business administration. Since his father was a truck driver for his entire working career, Allen decided to make his own living through trucking. He has been in the industry since 1992, working as both a driver as well as office staff. He currently works for Super Service LLC, where he would eventually like to take on an upper management position. His long-term goal is to become a CEO or CFO of a trucking company.

Mary Black
Con-way Truckload
Joplin, Mo.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
Black, a rising freshman at Missouri State University, plans to major in special education and minor in early childhood education. Her goal is to eventually teach at a school specializing in autism spectrum disorders. Her father has worked for Con-way Truckload for 20 years, beginning in the shop, where he sandblasted trailers, and eventually working his way up to a senior manager. Black says that since she became a licensed driver, her dad has shown her “how important it is to share and respect the road the way his professional drivers do.”

Matthieu Corbett
CRST International, Inc.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
This fall, Corbett will be a freshman at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. He has chosen business as his major and says that his father’s job within the trucking industry has inspired him to learn as much as he can about economics. An advanced placement course he took in high school quickly became Corbett’s favorite, showing him how supply and demand works, how to use resources efficiently, and much more. He finds all aspects of economics appealing and wants to learn as much as possible while in school.

Whitney Cox
Witte Brothers Exchange
Hawk Point, Mo.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
Cox joined the Witte Brothers team two years ago as an LTL scheduler for temperature-controlled freight. She knew little about trucking prior to taking the job, and now has a better appreciation for how goods are transferred around the country and into the local grocery stores. Majoring in education and social sciences, she is a rising senior at Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis, Missouri. Eventually, she wants to teach in a rural school to help guide students toward their goals like her own teachers did for her.

Gurpreet Gill
Bison Transport
Calgary, Alberta
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
Gill is about to enter his senior year at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. He is majoring in business administration and minoring in supply chain management. He currently works as a business analyst for Bison Transport and has written two papers on environmental policies in the trucking industry. The first focuses on environmental policies at a macro level and includes a model that can be adopted by any organization. The second is written on a micro level and includes an evolutionary model as well as a case study on Bison Transport.

Scott Greenhalgh
Bison Transport
Calgary, Alberta
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
For the past year and a half, Greenhalgh has worked in the operations department at Bison Transport. He states that the fast-paced working environment there has helped him prioritize responsibilities as well as develop better conflict management, multi-tasking, and communication skills. A rising senior at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he is studying supply chain logistics and marketing as he pursues a degree in commerce (with honors). After graduation, he hopes to stay on full-time at Bison Transport.

Katherine Hoekstra
Hoekstra Transportation LLC
Lisle, Ill.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
Hoekstra is a rising junior at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. She is pursuing a double major in business management and entrepreneurship. Hoekstra says she cannot imagine life without the trucking industry, since she has been raised as part of a multi-generational trucking business that began with her great-grandfather and continues today through the hard work of her grandfather, father, and uncle. She fully plans to work for the family business after graduation and considers her classroom learning to be an excellent enhancement to the hands-on experiences she has had with the trucking industry.

Tyler Kennedy
Roehl Transport Inc.
Park Falls, Wisc.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
This fall, Kennedy will enter the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse as a freshman. He has yet to declare a major. After graduation, he would like to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to obtain a higher degree in the medical field. His connection to trucking stems from his father, who was a truck driver for five years in the early 1980s. After working in another career for some time, he finally returned to truck driving in 2005. Kennedy says it was difficult to grow up with his father away much of the time, but they both managed to find ways to maintain a close relationship despite the distance between them.

Laura Konkol
Cummins, Inc.
Sun Prairie, Wisc.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
Konkol, a returning scholarship winner, will be a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall. She is currently majoring in sociology and exploring options for a possible double major. She hopes to create a career for herself in the court system, where she plans to help the underprivileged. Konkol credits the trucking industry for giving her father the financial means to support his family. She says that despite tough economic times and the loss of her mother’s job in another industry, the trucking community has come through for her family. The support and compassion of the industry is “something I want to emulate throughout my entire life,” she says.

Taylor Larson
Tennant Truck Lines
Coal Valley, Ill.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
This fall, Larson will begin her freshman year at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. She plans to study journalism and then enroll in an accelerated program that will allow her to attend Drake’s Law School a year sooner than usual. Her connection to the trucking industry stems from her father, who switched to trucking after the airline he was working for pulled out of the area. After just three years in the business, Larson says that a “huge change” has come over her dad. “My dad loves the work he is doing, he’s less stressed, he’s close to home, and my family and I couldn’t ask for anything more,” she says.

Curtis Leick
Fremont Contract Carriers
Fremont, Neb.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
Leick and his father both work for Fremont Contract Carriers. Although Leick’s employment is only on weekends and during school breaks, he is honored to consider his father as his “co-worker.” He says that watching and listening to his dad talk about his job has helped him to learn responsibility and customer service. A business finance and economics major, he will be a sophomore at Wayne State in Wayne, Neb., in the fall. After graduation, he plans to be a financial portfolio manager and possibly conduct some international travel for his business.

Sarah Moreau
May Trucking Company
Albany, Ore.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
An incoming freshman, Moreau is planning to major in journalism or mass communications at Corban University in Salem, Ore. Her career goal is to work her way up from writing for a newspaper or magazine, to becoming the editor-in-chief, to eventually starting her own publication. Her father has worked in the business side of the trucking industry for almost thirteen years. Moreau is convinced that the trucking industry is more personal than many other industries. She feels her dad has stayed with the business for so long because he gets to know his customers on a personal level and enjoys the people he works with. As she heads into her own career as a journalist, Moreau hopes to build strong relationships with people in the same way as her father.

Ryan Rainwater
Super Service
Monticello, Ky.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
Rainwater is a rising sophomore at Somerset Community College in Somerset, Ky. He is a criminal justice major who is also minoring in psychology. After graduation, he plans to become a state trooper. His father has been a truck driver for 16 years. According to Rainwater, his father came to trucking after being laid off in another industry. Truck driving saved the family from poverty. “I can honestly and truly say that I absolutely love the trucking industry because it has given my family a great life,” he says.

Brian Ruhe
Classic Carriers, Inc.
Versailles, Ohio
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
Ruhe can certainly claim he is connected to the trucking industry… his grandfather and father own a freight shipping and trucking company in Indiana, his uncle manages a Freightliner dealership in Ohio, and his father is vice president for Classic Carriers, also in Ohio. He says that – with so many relatives in the business – every family get-together ultimately involves a discussion of fuel prices, driver turnover, satellites, new engines, etc. Ruhe will be entering the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio, as a freshman this fall. He plans to study international business.

Kayla Schneider
American Central Transport
Effingham, Kan.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
Schneider says she “basically grew up in a truck.” By tagging along with her father, who has been a driver for more than 30 years, she was able to visit 45 states – all before starting school. A rising freshman at Highland Community College in Highland, Kan., she plans to study biochemistry and eventually work in a lab to study and research common diseases in the hope of finding cures.

Yasmina Shaush
JBS Carriers
Greeley, Col.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
Shaush has been captivated by America’s complex expanse of highways and roads since moving to America at the age of six. Coming from the Ukraine, where the road infrastructure is much less sophisticated, she says she was fascinated by not only the “incredible loops” found in the U.S., but also the “massive eighteen wheelers which cruised with ease through the nerve center of the [country].” Since her step-father worked in the industry, he patiently answered her many questions about trucking machinery and the transportation process. About to enter her freshman year at New York University, Shaush will study international relations and hopes to ultimately complete law school with a focus on international law.

Mark Stanley
Con-way Truckload
Joplin, Mo.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
This fall, Stanley will enter the University of Arkansas, located in Fayettesville, Ark. He will be a freshman studying civil engineering. He says that, over the years, Con-way and its predecessor, Contract Freighters, have hosted family nights, which allowed him to gain a better understanding of what his father does and how his company works. When the Joplin community was paralyzed by two natural disasters earlier this year, he learned quite a bit about how truckloads of food and supplies are brought in to help with emergency relief efforts. Stanley is grateful to the trucking industry for the personal support it has provided through his father’s job and for what it provides his family and community.

Taylor Stockdale
Decker Truck Line Inc.
Indianola, Iowa
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
This fall, Stockdale will be a junior at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. Currently, he is a physics and mathematics double major with a chemistry minor. After graduation, he plans to attend graduate school to pursue a career in materials engineering. Both of Stockdale’s parents have worked in the trucking industry. His mother has worked for both Umthun Trucking and Decker Truck Line, while his father has worked as a mechanic for Arbor Freight Lines and later as a shop foreman and office manager for Ruan Transportation when it acquired Arbor. Like many children who have been raised by parents who work for the industry, he has a firm appreciation for truck drivers and the “bigger picture” that is the entire transportation system.

Connie Waugh
D.M. Bowman, Inc.
Hagerstown, Md.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
Waugh is a rising junior at Kaplan University in Hagerstown, Md. She is a business administration major. Her father has worked in the trucking industry, and her husband has been a truck driver for more than 25 years. Waugh says that she and her husband are well matched because they both love driving and traveling to different places. Both work for D.M. Bowman.

Caitlyn Weinfurtner
Roehl Transport
Greenwood, Wisc.
TCA Scholarship ($2,500)
Weinfurtner will be a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall. She will study business management and administration. She hopes to work in sales and to someday own her own company. She says that the trucking industry has made her aware of how personal dedication can take you far in life. With a family connection to Roehl Transport, she has read about how the company’s founder, Everett Roehl, started out in a small town near her own home town and turned a one-truck business into one of the largest truckload carriers in the nation. “No matter where you start in life, you can become as big as you want to be if you push yourself to the limit,” she says.

Brieanne Tingley
CRST
Batavia, Ill.
TCA Scholarship ($1,500)
Brieanne is entering her freshman year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She plans to double major in viola performance and ecology. She would love to someday conduct research for an environmental organization, as well as play in an orchestra or pit orchestra.

Lyndra Tingley
CRST
East Lansing, Mich.
TCA Scholarship ($1,500)
Lyndra will be entering her senior year at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. She is studying music education and hopes to teach middle school students how to play string instruments.