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The Clemmons Community Foundation announced three scholarship recipients this week.

Adia Redfearn, recipient of The Salem Glen College Assistance Program in memory of Richard ‘Dick’ Bunker

The Salem Glen College Assistance Program, started in 2020, aims to help high school seniors and adults returning to school to improve their options for a higher-earning career. The program assists students as they navigate and pursue a degree or career certification from Forsyth Tech or Davidson-Davie County Community College. The program also provides a mentor pairing to scholarship recipients to aid occupational goal engagement. Mentors are selected volunteers from the Salem Glen neighborhood.

Adia Redfearn, a student at Davidson-Davie Community College, has received this year’s $2,500 award.

“A quote that my grandmother will always tell me is, ‘You are the head and not the tail.’ This scholarship focuses on that quote because it encouraged me to step out and make myself marketable and to believe in myself that I am worthy of this scholarship,” says Redfearn.

Redfearn is studying health information technology, working towards a career in a hospital setting as an electronic health records specialist.

She describes herself as an innovative problem solver and shared the following in her scholarship application: “Growing up, I always had a need to help people in any way possible. I would help my teachers sort through paperwork, file papers and use technology to help in anyway. I love exploring new tools when it comes to using technology.”

The program caught the attention of Pat Bunker and her daughters Stacy Mayhew and Shana Bunker, who were approached to consider a contribution. Bunker’s husband, Richard “Dick” Bunker, passed away in November 2016 and the family had been looking for the best way to honor his life. Dick loved helping people learn and spent his career and retirement not only tutoring and mentoring his own family, but other students of every age — even graduate students.

An electrical engineer by trade, Richard Bunker valued education above all else and believed that everyone had the right to higher education. He would have fully supported the great things that Salem Glen and the Clemmons Community Foundation are doing by not only providing financial assistance to deserving students but offering a mentor to take the journey with them. In 2021, this award is given in loving remembrance, thanks to his family. His daughter, Stacy Mayhew, offered the following, “My family is overjoyed to have a part in awarding a scholarship in my father’s memory to Ms. Aida Redfearn. She is truly an inspiration in the way she has selflessly cared for others, placing their well-being ahead of her dreams, but never losing sight of her educational and career goals. Her heart and drive will make her successful and my father would be honored to give her the assistance that this scholarship will provide.”

The Mary Elizabeth Dodson Conrad Scholarship

The Mary Elizabeth Dodson Conrad Scholarship was offered for the first time this year and two recipients were selected. The $2,500 scholarship is given to a Forsyth County resident seeking a degree or credential in the healthcare field. Candidates may be high school seniors or adults.

John and Angela Golden established the scholarship to honor Angela’s mother last year.

Mary Elizabeth Dodson Conrad, affectionately known as Liz, was the youngest of 11 children, born May 2, 1930, in Alamance County to the late James and Mary Dodson. Conrad, blessed with a servant heart, dropped out of high school to take care of her parents when they became ill. It was then that she discovered her “call” to the health care field. She obtained her GED and went to work in a Burlington sock mill to be able to pay her way through nursing school. In 1959, she married the love of her life, Arnold Gray “Doc” Conrad. Together they raised two children, Gray and Angela. Throughout her life, Conrad shared her servant heart, always willing to help others. She was strong and independent and generously served her family, church and community.

The review committee selected the following two recipients.

Kaliyah Fryer

Kaliyah Fryer plans to attend East Carolina University and study chemistry, working towards a career in pharmacy. She believes pharmacies are very important and hopes to help others better understand medicine and the chemistry behind their prescriptions.

She maintained a 4.0 grade point average during high school while working two part-time jobs and going through “regular teenage hardships,” still finding time to give back to her community.

During high school, Fryer was a part of Novant Health Junior Volunteer Program (where her interest in pharmacy first began) and volunteered at her church, Union Baptist, helping with youth events and also choreographing dances and teaching dance for ministry.

“Academic success is very important because I know how I want my future to look and I’m doing everything to strive for that no matter the circumstance,” Fryer said in her application.

Melissa Celedon-Garcia

Melissa Celedon-Garcia will attend Forsyth Tech to study dental hygiene as the first step in pursuing a career in orthodontics. She strives to help others feel more confident through dentistry and to make dental services more welcoming to her Latino community.

While a student at Glenn High School, she was active with Red Cross/HOSA, Spanish Club and Crosby Scholars. Her involvement with Spanish Club led to service projects supporting Samaritan Ministries and Ronald McDonald House. She held a 3.95 GPA; received a varsity letter in women’s tennis her sophomore year and a varsity star in women’s tennis her junior year; was a part of the superintendent’s student advisory council; and ranked 11 of 345 students. She has earned her Certified Nursing Assistance license and was nominated for the Congress of Future Medical Leaders Award of Excellence by Mario Capechhi, the 2007 Nobel Prize winner in medicine. She represented her school at the National Youth Leadership Forum: Advanced Medicine & Health Care.

She shared the following on being awarded this scholarship: “The Mary Elizabeth Dodson Conrad Scholarship has given me the ability to pursue my aspirations in higher education and breaking down barriers between dental hygiene and my Latino community. Thanks to this scholarship, I now have mobility to attend college as the first step in my career to orthodontics. Financial relief may be the direct impact of the scholarship; however, it will aid me in my purpose to comfort and give others confidence in obtaining dental care. As a recipient of the Mary Elizabeth Dodson Conrad Scholarship, I am proud to carry on the benevolence of Mrs. Dodson and her family.”

The two 2021 recipients will, no doubt, carry on Mary Elizabeth Dodson Conrad’s tradition of service in healthcare.

John and Susan Mickey of Clemmons served on the selection committee for this scholarship and shared the following: “We were so pleased to have had the opportunity to assist with the fine work of the foundation. We have remained in our own discussions, as well as with others, filled with hope for the outlook of healthcare going forward.”

The Clemmons Community Foundation facilitates these and other scholarship opportunities for local philanthropists. For more information on the scholarship programs, go to clemmonsfoundation.org. Additional awards from their 2021 opportunities will be announced in the coming weeks.