As the founder of Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes, John MacDougall was a longtime supporter of the National Advisory Group (NAG). In his personal life, he was also a strong supporter of higher education. Though MacDougall passed away in 2014, we continue to honor his legacy and his longtime support of NAG.
For the fifth consecutive year, the association will remember John’s influence on NAG and the entire convenience store industry by offering the John MacDougall/NAG Memorial Scholarship exclusively to NAG members.
As the economy continues to flourish, we all understand the importance of a well-educated workforce, and the c-store landscape is certainly no exception. The NAG scholarship fund was developed to help qualified individuals offset some of these costs. Part of NAG’s core mission is to help to cultivate and groom the convenience store leaders of tomorrow.
In keeping with that theme, NAG created this scholarship fund for employees and children of NAG member companies. In 2018, NAG awarded six scholarships to qualified students totaling $8,000. I’m sure John would be proud of our efforts to support higher education.
The Program
The NAG Scholarship Fund is managed by the NAG Board of Directors, Convenience Store Decisions and Scholarship America, and sponsored by the retailer and supplier members of NAG. This program was started in the late 1990s and has distributed more than 100 scholarships totaling more than $112,000 to deserving students. The fund is financed through annual dues collections by NAG members and drives from golf outings and conference sponsorship allocations.
The Awards
This year, we are recognizing five recipients and have a healthy scholarship fund to ensure the college-age children of NAG member companies will receive financial assistance to pursue their goals of becoming the leaders of tomorrow.
The program utilizes standard Scholarship America recipient selection procedures, including past academic performance and future potential, leadership and participation in school and community activities, work
experience and an outside appraisal.
This year, five awards of $1,000 will be granted. Awards are not renewable, though students may reapply to the program each year they meet eligibility requirements. Applications must be postmarked by June 17, 2019.
Eligibility
Applicants who work in the c-store industry must be employees or children of employees who have a minimum of one-year employment with a NAG member company. Applicants must plan to enroll in a full- or part-time undergraduate course of study at an accredited two- or four-year college, university or vocational-technical school. Applicants who are current students or who have attended school within the past three years must have maintained a minimum 2.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale.
I hope you’re able to take advantage of this program by becoming a member of NAG. For more information on both the scholarship and the association, please visit www.nagconvenience.com. And please be sure to mark your calendar for the 2019 NAG Conference in Minneapolis, Sept. 8-11.
NAG was founded in 1982 by former retailers who were concerned that other associations were too focused on larger chains. After 37 years, our mission remains the same: To help convenience store retailers interact with one another to discuss new concepts, share information and come away with innovative ideas to grow sales and profits. NAG’s role in the competitive c-store industry remains unquestioned. There is a void in the channel for this type of passionate organization, composed of executive-level retailers from small, mid-sized and family-owned chains. NAG remains an organization that is fully committed to its members.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at (201) 321-5642 or via email at [email protected]. For information about Scholarship America or eligibility requirements, contact program manager Rita Gibbs at [email protected].