Dunbar School Alumni Association recently awarded five $800 scholarships to descendants of former students, teachers or administrators who are current financial members of the group.

Criteria for eligibility to receive an award include satisfactory academic progress, a letter of recommendation from a nonrelative, evidence of service to the school, church and/or community, and an essay focused on plans for future service to the community.

Recipients are:

• Myles Holland, grandson of Carolyn Long Napoleon, who said, “My natural knack for helping people has led me to pursue a career in medicine, specifically for the skin. Since junior high school, I have wanted to become a dermatologist. My interest in dermatology was piqued when I learned that my grandfather had skin cancer. I immediately went to the internet and researched the topic. It would be great if I could discover a less painful way to get rid of skin cancer.”

Myles is enrolled at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

• After graduation, Miles P. Hackett plans to use his biomedical engineering knowledge and skills to continue exposing at-risk elementary children to STEM education. His involvement with similar students created a desire to provide fellow engineers as mentors for struggling students. Miles is pursuing a degree in biomedical engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He is the grandson of Jimmie L. Hackett Sr., a 1957 graduate of Dunbar High School.

• Christopher Maultsby is the grandson of Dunbar alumnus Sandra Witherspoon Corpening. A student at Savannah State University in Georgia, Maultsby wrote that he plans to use his college education to volunteer in the Big Brother program. “Sometimes people need to see someone who has accomplished something before they are inspired to push  themselves,” Maultsby says. “The local community would benefit from my mentoring program.”

• Jalesa Venning is the granddaughter of alumni member Brenda Stout Venning. In her essay, Venning shared that the adage, “It is better to give than to receive” has been ingrained in her since infancy. Being raised by her grandparents led her to often see what giving and service to others looked like.

“When I first encountered the real world, I chose jobs that reflected my urge to help others,” she says. “As I have grown, I fully understand the importance of giving to others, and I now want to take the adage to the next level by becoming a partner in health and an agent of change for my underserved communities, one person at a time.”

Venning is pursuing a degree in physician assistant studies at East Carolina University.

• Dock Corpening III, who received his fourth scholarship, is the grandson of alumni member Kathleen Corpening. He is a senior biology major at UNC-Pembroke.

In his essay, Corpening said, “I realize how important it is to help those that are less fortunate than others. Currently, I’m giving back by volunteering at the local middle school and helping with special projects. I enjoy doing volunteer work, and I would like to work with a nonprofit organization in the future. I feel that I can help our youth to see that they are capable of great things.”