Bonnie Heater Ten area students received scholarships July 23 at the Gordon Club during the U.S. Army Signal Center of Excellence Sergeants Major Association Scholarship Awards Ceremony.

Every year, the U.S. Army Signal Center of Excellence Sergeants Major Associations presents several $500 scholarships to local high school graduating seniors. The scholarships are named and presented in memory of the late Sgt. Maj. Larry Strickland and Sgt. Maj. Lacey Ivory who were killed during the terrorists attack on the Pentagon Sept. 11, 2001; Command Sgt. Major Jerry Wilson, a native of Thomson, Ga., who was killed in an ambush in Mosul, Iraq November 2003; and Sgt. 1st Class Derrick Brent who passed away Jan. 3, 2007 in Wiesbaden, Germany.

The recipients were selected based upon the best-written essay, their academic and athletic achievements as well as their volunteer work in the church and their involvement with community activities. “The subject of each essay was left up to the individual student,” said Alan Steele, the U.S. Army Signal Center of Excellence Sergeants Major Association Scholarship Awards chairman.

Joshua Lewis, a graduate of Cross Creek High School, and Kierra Douglas of Fort Gordon and a graduate of Witchita Heights High School, are recipients of this year’s Sgt. Maj. Larry Strickland Scholarship. Lewis plans to attend Catawba College and Douglas will be attending Georgia Military College.

Michelle Clum, a graduate of John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School, and Lauren Cheek, a graduate of Lakeside High School, received the 2010 Sgt. Maj. Lacey Ivory Scholarship award, Ashley Saunders, a graduate of the Academy of Richmond County High School, was presented with the 2010 Command Sgt. Maj. Jerry Wilson Scholarship and Daurius Guillory, a graduate of Hephzibah High School, earned the Retired Sergeants Major of the Central Savannah River Area Scholarship.

Clum plans to attend the University of Georgia, Cheek will be attending Georgia College and State University, Saunders plans to attend the University of Georgia, and Guillory will be a student at Valdosta State University.

Clarence Brooks Jr., a graduate of Hephzibah High School, Tavarus Ferguson, a graduate of Evans High School, Shemaiah Stewart, also a graduate of Evans High School, and Yashua Rivera, a graduate of Glenn Hills High School, took home the 2010 Sgt. 1st Class Derrick Brent Scholarships Awards.

Brooks will be attending North Carolina A & T State University, Ferguson will be a student at Gardner-Web University, Stewart will be attending Augusta State University and Rivera plans to attend Berry College.

Money for the scholarships is raised by bagging groceries at the Fort Gordon Commissary, through charity golf tournaments hosted by the U.S. Army Signal Center of Excellence Sergeants Major Association, and private donations. Renee Brent, the wife of the late Sgt. 1st Class Derrick Brent, donated a personal check for $2,000 for the scholarship program.

“My husband was a very giving person,” said Brent. “He was an educator who was always trying to make the world a better place. This check is not only an investment in the future of our country, but its a way I can continue his legacy.”

The U.S. Army Signal Center of Excellence Sergeants Major Association plans to raise money bagging groceries at the post’s commissary in October. Proceeds will go to the Fort Gordon Christmas House.

Anyone with the rank of master sergeant or first sergeant (promotable), sergeant major or command sergeant major is eligible to join the U.S. Army Signal Center of Excellence Sergeants Major Association. For information about membership in the U.S. Army Signal Center of Excellence Sergeants Major Association call Sgt. Maj. Jeffery Watts, the organization’s president, at (407) 962-8559 or via e-mail at Jeffery.watts@ us.army.mil.