Four Michigan Tech Students Win Portage Health Foundation Scholarships

The Portage Health Foundation has awarded four scholarships to local area Michigan Technological University students who are interested in pursuing health-related careers. Recipients are Kelly Larson, Katie Schjoth, Braden Peterson and Dylan Turpeinen.

The scholarships are part of a Michigan Tech-Portage Health Foundation partnership established to support health-related research and education, jobs and community health.

Supporting Health Careers Education 

“The intention of the scholarship program is to ease the financial burden associated with earning an education, so that talented students can focus on being successful in their studies,” said Hilary Anderson, grants management coordinator at the Portage Health Foundation.

Larson is a third-year sports and fitness management major  from L’Anse. Schjoth is in her third year of medical laboratory science. She’s from Baraga. Peterson is also a third-year medical laboratory science major from Hancock, and Turpeinen is a fourth-year chemical engineering major from Houghton.

Schjoth plans to become a physician assistant. “It is my hope to return one day and find myself in the UP with a job I love,” she said.

Turpeinen hopes to put his chemical engineering to work to help fight malaria with biosensor devices. “This scholarship will allow me to start my graduate research this spring, and I couldn’t be more excited to get in the lab,” he said.

Tech faculty nominated students for the scholarships, and a faculty committee reviewed the nominations, evaluating grade point average, financial need, diversity by county, health field of study and gender

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.