Sunflower Bank

MANHATTAN, Kan.- Sunflower Bank awarded three scholarships to Yiwen Jia, Nathan Phillips, and Reid Lundin at the close of the first annual Community Ambassadors program.

Jia, Phillips, and Lundin received $1000, $500, and $250 scholarships, respectively, in part for a contemplative essay during the program and also for stellar academic and scholastic achievement throughout the year.

Zachary Lee, Kelsi Head, and Mina Hosni also completed the inaugural Community Ambassadors program and were recognized at Sunday’s graduation ceremony.

Sunflower Bank’s Community Ambassadors program is designed to encourage young people to consider their hometown community as a viable place to live and work after completing their higher education, and to help foster entrepreneurship and financial responsibility among youth leaders.

The six select high school seniors attended 3-to-4 hour sessions once a month for seven months. Session topics included financial basics, local government, economic development, and business leadership.

“We’re extremely proud of all our Community Ambassadors and hope we’ve given them an insight into the importance of their home community,” said Randall Anderes, president of Sunflower Bank Manhattan. “We hope the seminars help paint Manhattan not only as their hometown – but also a future destination.”

Sunflower Bank’s Community Ambassadors Scholarship Program provides three scholarships given locally within a Community Ambassadors class – a $1,000 scholarship, a $500 scholarship and a $250 scholarship. In addition, three additional $1000 scholarship recipients will be selected from the pool of all communities’ scholarship applicants.

All three Manhattan scholarship winners are seniors at Manhattan High. Jia, the grand-prize $1000 scholarship winner, is undecided on college choice, but will attend a university and combine her passions for engineering, economics, biology, and foreign language into her future study.

Phillips plans to attend the University of Kansas and major in pre-medicine in the fall, and Lundin will attend Kansas State, majoring in architectural engineering.

Sunflower Bank is now accepting applications for the next class of Community Ambassadors, which will begin this fall. Applications will be accepted until Monday, May 31, 2007. Program membership will be limited to a small group and applicants will be evaluated on current class work, community activities, and a series of short essay questions. The scholarships will again be awarded based on effort, participation, and work completed during the Community Ambassador program.

The Community Ambassadors Program is facilitated locally in each Sunflower Bank community. Questions about application or about the program itself can be directed to local bank presidents or customer service managers. In addition, questions can be directed to Sunflower Bank’s customer service line at 1-888-827-5564.