IT’S GOOD TO HAVE affiliations with business, trade, and other organizations that care about young people and, in particular, the quality education of these youngsters. Among these organizations is the Florida Transportation Builders Association [https://ftba.com/] (FTBA), “Florida’s Voice for the Transportation Construction Industry.” Tucker Paving, Inc., has been a member of the FTBA for many years.

The FTBA has a youth scholarship fund and annually awards thousands of dollars worth of scholarship money to qualified high school seniors who are bound for college.

An FTBA scholarship is available to any Florida resident who is a graduating high school senior and who has a parent or legal guardian serving as a member of or an employee of an FTBA-member firm.

Back in late May, Tucker Paving presented FTBA scholarships to two local graduating high school students — seniors Abigail Lopez and Stephanie Moreno. Each of these young ladies received $1,000 to use toward their next adventure in education. You might have seen our June 4 congratulatory Facebook post about this. If not, the post and four photos still can be seen here.

FTBA scholarships are granted in varying amounts, annually, for a period up to four years, so long as the applicant is making satisfactory progress in his or her field of study. Verification of satisfactory progress is required from the school annually.

The only curriculum requirement is that the scholarship student attend an accredited college or university. There are no geographic limitations on the school of choice, but the FTBA scholarship applicant must be a Florida resident. Scholarship applications are evaluated on the application itself, a school transcript and ACT or SAT scores, and letters of recommendation.

The window for 2018 FTBA scholarship applications is closed now, but there will be a new opportunity for scholarship funds for rising high school seniors — would-be members of the Class of 2019 — with a parent or guardian on Team Tucker Paving. Information about 2019 FTBA scholarship applications will be posted online here.

The FTBA always welcomes contributions to its scholarship fund. To learn more about this, call the FTBA in Tallahassee at 850-942-1404 or send a message by e-mail to info@ftba.com.