Marine Trades Association of New Jersey awards 2014 family scholarship

MANASQUAN, N.J. — The Marine Trades Association of New Jersey (MTA/NJ) Foundation announced recently the availability for a new scholarship for MTA/NJ members. The MTA/NJ Foundation, a 501(c) (3), was established to help promote and encourage boating safety and education. The Foundation began offering an education scholarship in 2006, which was open to all students pursuing a career in the marine industry, and awarded over $18,000 in scholarships. Heading into its eighth year, the Education Committee felt it was time to reevaluate this scholarship and look to giving back to our members who generously support and donate to the Foundation.

This new scholarship, valued at $1,500, is open to MTA/NJ members’ children and their employees’ children and can be applied to any higher education program. Applicants can be awarded the scholarship a maximum of two times and may reapply each year as long as the eligibility criteria are still met.

The 2014 MTA/NJ Family Scholarship was awarded to Olivia Nesnay of Spring Lake Heights, NJ. Olivia is a junior studying Economics at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and hopes to become a Financial Analysis after graduation. Olivia’s father is the Service Manager at McCarthy’s Marine Sales in Brielle, NJ.

“We are excited to be able to offer this new opportunity to give back to our members, their children and employees and help offset the costs of higher education,” stated MTA/NJ Executive Director, Melissa Danko. “We are very thankful to all of our supporters that have helped make this scholarship possible. We look forward to seeing it grow and more students like Olivia achieve their educational and career goals.”

In addition to 2014 MTA/NJ Family Scholarship, the Automotive Training Center in Warminster, Pennsylvania sponsored a half scholarship to their Marine Technician Program. The recipient of the Automotive Training Center scholarship was Robert Erickson of Barnegat. Robert is graduating from Barnegat High School as well as Ocean County Vocational Technical School, Toms River Center. After completing training, Robert plans on pursuing his career in the marine field with the hopes of eventually owning his own marina.

The MTA/NJ also awarded an outstanding student award for the purchase of tools for the trade to Bryan Boyhan from the Ocean County Vocational Technical School.

For more information about the MTA/NJ Foundation or to make a donation, please contact the MTA/NJ office at 732-292-1051; email: info@mtanj.org.