Today, we shine a spotlight on one of our incredible scholarships:

The Hoag Scholarship

The Hoag Scholarship is a $10,500 four-year scholarship that was first awarded in 2013. The scholarship is fully funded and was established by Courtenay and Maurice Hoag to provide financial assistance to a student pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering. The Albion HS Alumni Foundation awards one scholarship annually at $10,500 over four years and is paid out at $2625 per year upon successful completion of each year of college. The recipient must continue in an engineering major over the four year scholarship period.

The scholarship has been awarded to one recipient, so far: Trevor Hadick in 2013. Trevor is currently in his second year at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, PA and has this to say about receiving this prestigious scholarship:

“Knowing that a portion of my schooling will be paid as long as I do what I intend on doing already, excelling, means more than you know and puts a huge smile on my face. Your generosity has inspired me to help others and give back to the community. I hope one day I will be able to help students achieve their goals by giving a similar scholarship, just as you have given me.”

One of sixteen scholarships being managed and awarded by the Albion HS Alumni Foundation, The Hoag Scholarship is the only scholarship awarded over a four year period – benefiting a student through to the end of their degree pursuit. The scholarship was not awarded in 2014 because there were no applicants pursuing a Chemical Engineering degree. The Foundation encourages students with possible interests in this field to research the wide range of career possibilities a degree in Chemical Engineering could provide and consider applying for this valuable scholarship.

The Hoag Scholarship was made possible by funding provided by Courtenay and Maurice Hoag. Maurice (“Mo”) Hoag graduated from Albion High School as the Valedictorian of the class of 1961 and from the College of Chemical Engineering at Cornell University in 1965. He met his wife, Courtenay, while in college and they were married the day before they graduated from Cornell. Mo worked for 30 years with Stauffer Chemical company, beginning in New York City and later at the Houston, Kansas City, Geneva, Switzerland, and Westport, CT locations. His work had him traveling extensively throughout the United States and internationally to Johannesburg, Moscow, and Tokyo. Courtenay, a native of Baltimore, MD, worked for IBM and also did a lot of business travel internationally – mostly to Western Europe and Japan. They both retired in 1995 and moved to Whispering Pines, NC. In 2004, they relocated to Courtenay’s hometown of Baltimore, where they currently reside.

Mo enjoys playing bad golf, fishing, traveling, and working in his shop fixing things that are not broken. The Hoags have a small RV that they use for extensive travel all over the USA, having traveled to all 50 states….they found that the bridge toll to Hawaii was too expensive, so they actually flew to that state! They also enjoy one or two major trips a year outside the USA. After traveling over the past 45 years, they claim there is hardly any place on earth that they have not visited – at least the places where any sane person would really want to go.

When asked what he remembers most about high school in Albion, Mo responded that he remembers “the long days of homework, working at some job to earn money, involvement with the Scouts, the Albion Sportsman’s Club, and the First Baptist Church. But most of all, the good friends and the overall great camaraderie during all his school years from Mrs. Coffey’s class to room 318. The long day training served me well, as they got even longer in college and didn’t decrease much in my working years. Now that I am retired, I get up in the morning with absolutely nothing that I have to do, but, by the time I go to bed I only have half of it done.”, said Hoag in his bio provided to their 50th class reunion committee.

Mo credits his own experience with scholarships as his motivation for starting the Hoag Scholarship for the Alumni Foundation. He said that he would not have been able to attend college if it weren’t for the scholarships he received. He wanted to “give something back” and his home town was a good place to start. The Hoags believe that the USA is in need of more engineers so that we can successfully compete in the world. That, and his own successful career as a Chemical Engineer, was his reason for making the pursuit of a degree in Chemical Engineering the criteria for the scholarship. The Hoags are no stranger to contributing to the educational needs of the Albion community. Their donation to the efforts to build a new library in Albion awarded them with the honor of having the library named after their family – the new Hoag Library. In an article for the Batavia Daily News in July 2012, Hoag was credited with saying he believes in the importance of education and the power of knowledge to level the playing field. He wants students considering the field of Chemical Engineering to know that there are a lot of exciting things going on in the field and that “if you are a self starting ‘go-getter’, have an aptitude in math and science, and like to solve problems and make things, engineering is a great field. If not, try some other field, as you will not make it in engineering.” He also mentioned that it appears that more ladies are entering this field – “When I was at Cornell, we only had one gal in all 4 classes. Now, judging from the current class pictures, at least 50% of the graduates are ladies.”  His advice / words of wisdom for our students and recent graduates: “Be thankful you are in the USA and get off your hind end and do something to make it an even better country.” 

Thank you to the Hoags for their generosity in establishing this amazing scholarship. Good luck to Trevor Hadick on his continued success at Carnegie Mellon. And best of luck to all future students considering this scholarship to help them achieve their educational goals.

If you are interested in more information about establishing a scholarship or the Foundation in general, you may drop us a note at: Albion High School Alumni Foundation, Inc. P.O. Box 345 Albion, NY 14411-0345.

Other scholarships available for Albion High School seniors that are administered by the AHS Alumni Foundation include:

Albion High School Alumni Foundation Scholarships – four $1500 scholarships

Paul R. Haines Memorial Scholarship – $1500 scholarship

Smith Foundation Challenge – $1000 scholarship

Saint-Gobain Technical Fabrics Scholarship – $1000 scholarship

Elizabeth Balcom Smith Scholarship – $500 scholarship

Golden Performance Award – $500 scholarship

Jim and Susie Fraser Health Careers Scholarship – $500 scholarship

Dr. Lee Minier Science Scholarship – $500 scholarship

Albion Alumni Foundation Performing Arts Scholarship – $1000 scholarship

Coach Richard Diminuco Scholarship for Athletic Excellence – $1500 scholarship

Harry W. Salchak Science Scholarship – $2500 scholarship

A.B. “Dick” Eddy “Service Above Self” Scholarship – $1250 scholarship

The Nancy Elaine LaGamba Scholarship – $1000 scholarship

The Dr. Paul Mahany Family Scholarships – $1250 scholarship

Panek Family Farm Acriculture Scholarship – $1000 scholarship – our newest scholarship