BARB BARRETT/The Luminary Anna Trevouledes and Trey Smith, Hughesville FBLA seniors, came to the GHBA meeting last week asking for support to state finals on April 11-13 in Hershey. The student organization was able to raise some funds by selling cash raffle tickets at the 5 to Drive event last December.

HUGHESVILLE – It’s scholarship time and business members from the Greater Hughesville Business Association (GHBA) met last week to decide on the final guidelines for the $2,000 scholarships they are anticipating giving away this year.

The April 6th deadline to apply is fast approaching and Diane Santo from the GHBA said that Hughesville High School students can receive the application either on the school’s website at www.elsd.org or through Jamie Bower, Coordinator of Career and Student Services.

The scholarships are open to anyone going to college who hopes to someday be working in some kind of business according to GHBA president, Suzanne Holmes.

In the past the business organization would only award the scholarship to one boy and one girl, but this year the awards will go to the top two best qualifiers, no matter what their gender. “This needs to be changed to reflect the times,” Holmes replied.

In order to qualify they must be a graduating senior with a cumulative GPA of 85 or higher and complete a 500 word essay or more in their field of study. Volunteer and community work also helps in nominating a scholarship award. “We ask them to describe in detail any service activities they are involved in and all school related activities,” added Santo. The checks will be presented at the June 23rd GHBA scholarship dinner.

Two Hughesville high school students from the FBLA came to talk about their involvement with state finals and offered to sit in some of the GHBA meetings, so that they could learn more about the world of business. Anna Trevouledes, a business major, and Trey Smith, who is interested in a medical career, said they will be competing with 40 some high school students at state finals this year.

Holmes said, “We gave them the opportunity to sell tickets at the 5 to Drive Christmas cash raffle last December and they sold $1100 worth. We took into consideration the expense per ticket. This worked out very well for both FBLA and GHBA.” They earned over $500 for FBLA.

State finals for FBLA will take place April 11-13 in Hershey. Trey Smith said that most of the competition is based on parliamentary procedure and the top ten in the state will be determined then. “Some competitions are presentations, others are determined from testings,” he said.

The group will work on the fundraiser again this year for the annual 5 to Drive.

The next general meeting for the GHBA will be held on Tuesday, March 15 at 6 p.m. at Cheri’s House of Flowers in Hughesville, and plans will be made for the annual upcoming golf tournament.