‘Self-starter’ Gleason awarded
2019 Farragut High School graduate receives FWKCC scholarship
Farragut West Knox Chamber of Commerce Enterprise member representatives Herc Ligdis, left, SouthEast Bank senior vice president of commercial lending, and Farragut Mayor Ron Williams, second from left, present a $1,000 FWKCC student scholarship to Farragut High School Class of 2019 graduate Paige Gleason, center, who is joined by her parents, Shaun and Caroline Gleason,
Interning for FWKCC during spring semester answering phones, serving customers and writing the Chamber’s Who’s Who column, among other tasks, Gleason accepted the award during a presentation at the Chamber office Tuesday, May 21.
“Paige was chosen because every day that she came in here she had a great attitude,” said Julie Blaylock, FWKCC president/CEO. “She was always extremely professional. She would greet the staff every single day.
“She not only did everything that we asked her to do, she also would seek out tasks and she would go above and beyond to try to help us in any way that she saw a need, which is exactly the kind of attitude that we look for, and I think businesses would look for when they are looking for a good-quality staff,” she added.
“I am really grateful to them,” Gleason said.
Planning to major in digital media at East Tennessee State University, Gleason said she will use the scholarship to help pay for tuition and fees when she attends ETSU in the fall.
“Each (digital media) class comes with a $100 extra fee, just for all the computers, software and equipment that you use, so it will be nice to have (the scholarship) money to pay for that,” she added.
“Not all interns get scholarships, and the interns get scholarships at different levels, depending on the work that we see them do and perform,” Blaylock said.
As for FWKCC criteria, “We base our awarding of scholarships on the same basis a business would reward an employee. We look for an exceptional attitude. We look for self-starters,” Blaylock said.
“We look for those same kind of qualities that an employer would be looking for before he decides to give his staff a bonus or a raise,” she added.
“We’ve been lucky enough to have interns through Farragut High School for several years now. We start out all of our students teaching them the basic skills of working in an office.”
SouthEast Bank and Town of Farragut currently are the Chamber’s top tier Enterprise members, and as such, one of their benefits is the joy of giving those scholarships, Blaylock said.
“Without the support of those members who go above and beyond their standard membership, we never could do this,” she added.
“The bank is happy to be a partner with the Farragut West Knox Chamber, so anything we can do to support students — we always focus our charitable giving more on the education side — we’re just happy to support students moving on in their careers and finding out paths,” said Herc Ligdis, SouthEast Bank senior vice president of commercial lending.
