On Tuesday evening, commercial and industrial contractor Korellis celebrated one of the company’s biggest nights of the year – the George and Harriet Korellis Scholarship Award Dinner. Korellis employees and their families gathered to recognize the winners of this year’s round of scholarships and honor their goals, commitments, and achievements around the community.
Founded by former CEO Pete Korellis in honor of his late parents, the George and Harriet Korellis Scholarship is distributed to employees, or their family members, who are pursuing higher education. Up to $40,000 in legacy scholarships are available each year, and as of this year over $200,000 has been awarded since the program was created. This year, 11 scholarships were distributed – the most since the program began.
“It’s extremely gratifying not just to keep the memory of my parents alive but because these are the people that have afforded my family a lifestyle that we never expected,” said Pete Korellis. “We don’t make money off our hands, we make it off our employee’s hands, so we want to take care of them. To be able to give back to them, to continue saying thank you through these scholarships, is so fun to do.”
Some winners were employees themselves, others were their children – but every winner had a different set of goals, dreams, and strategies to achieve them. Every applicant needed to submit an essay, outlining all of those things; Korellis read through all of the winners’ before presenting their scholarships.
One of this year’s winners was Marguerite “Maggie” Ponda, who will be beginning her master’s degree program in exercise physiology this fall. Her father is a seven-year employee of Korellis. This is Ponda’s fifth time receiving the George and Harriet Korellis Scholarship – with it having helped fund her entire bachelor’s degree.
“Last year was a momentous occasion to have this scholarship. It eased my financial burden and allowed me to devote my time to volunteering in my community,” she said. “I spent a lot of time working with the elderly community at my school, which let me gain physical therapy experience through them. This scholarship allowed me to do all of that without worrying as much about the tuition bill. It’s an absolutely amazing program, and I feel blessed to have been awarded this for the last five years.”
John Ziolkowski, president and CEO of Korellis, noted how exciting it is to see such a wide array of passionate learners – especially the kids.
“It’s great to see those accomplishments and to see these children have such drive, such passion for something, especially Ponda,” he said. “She’s had this passion for physical therapy since she was 8 years old. To hear that, to hear about a kid that’s set their mind to something and accomplished it – that’s what we love to see. That’s the best gift I could get tonight.”
Pete Korellis plans for the scholarship to continue forever and keep bringing working-class families more opportunities.
“I think, in blue-collar industries, employees are sometimes overlooked,” he said. “In my 40 years in the business, I’ve had a lot of chances to meet business people and be involved in construction-related groups, and very seldom do you hear the leaders talk about their workers. It’s those guys out in the field that make or break a company, and we need to make sure we appreciate that because we can’t do what we do without them.”
The complete list of winners is as follows:
Joel Barnes, Korellis Safety Manager
Alexandria Gust, Korellis Commercial Administrator
Alan Enriquez, son of Roofer Francisco Enriquez
Isabel Esparza, daughter of Roofer Antulio Esparza
Mirabellah Hernandez, daughter of Estimator Mike Hernandez
Lazo Knezic, son of Service Manager Karen Knezic
Jacob Mabus, son of Sheet Metal Worker Steve Mabus
Nathan Middlebrook, son of Sheet Metal Worker Brook Middlebrook
Maggie Ponda, daughter of Roofer Vinnie Ponda
Nataly Salas, daughter of Roofer Eddie Salas
Kaitlyn Whitaker, daughter of Sheet Metal Worker J. Brian Whitaker
To learn more about Korellis, visit korellis.com.
