KCC Foundation announces Elayna Potter as recipient of prestigious Hensley Transfer Scholarship, awarding $13,000 per year for two years

Elayna Potter
Elayna Potter
Elayna Potter

The Kellogg Community College Foundation is pleased to announce Elayna Potter as the 2021 recipient of the Foundation’s prestigious Virginia M. Hensley Education or Health Care Two-Year Transfer Scholarship for the Highest Achieving Kellogg Community College Graduates.

Potter is the 11th recipient to receive the annual scholarship, which is awarded for up to two years to a graduating KCC student transferring to a select university in Michigan to pursue a bachelor’s degree in the education or health field.

The 2021-22 scholarship award is approximately $13,000 and can be renewed a second year if the recipient maintains scholarship eligibility.

Potter, of Marshall, is a 2019 graduate of Marshall Academy, where she was salutatorian, and dual-enrolled at KCC while still in high school. She was also a recipient of the KCC Foundation’s prestigious Virginia M. Hensley Gold Key Scholarship through the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years at KCC. She graduated in December with an Associate in Elementary Education degree.

While a student at KCC, Potter was a member of the Education Club, the Phi Theta Kappa international honor society and worked three part-time jobs. Potter completed her honors project at KCC by serving as an assistant teacher for kindergarten and first grade students at Marshall Academy.

Potter currently works as an assistant teacher at Kinderhaus Montessori School in Marshall and is studying early childhood education and human development at Western Michigan University, where she began her studies this spring.

The Virginia M. Hensley Transfer Scholarship was established in November 2011 by Virginia Hensley. Hensley attended kindergarten through eighth grade at an elementary school located on the campus of Central Michigan University, attended high school locally and then returned to CMU for a degree in education. Hensley retired in 1983 after a distinguished, 38-year teaching career at McKinley Elementary School in Battle Creek, where she mostly taught third grade. Hensley also taught for two years at Battle Creek’s Lincoln Elementary School.

Hensley, who passed away in 2020, had a passion for education and felt that whenever possible high-achieving students should be afforded every opportunity to continue their studies.

For more information about the Virginia M. Hensley Education or Health Care Two-Year Transfer Scholarship for the Highest Achieving Kellogg Community College Graduates or other KCC Foundation scholarships, please contact KCC Foundation Executive Director Teresa Durham at 269-965-4161 or visit www.kellogg.edu/foundation.

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