Five local students from Churchill County received Jim Regan Memorial Scholarships at the May 18 meeting of the Churchill County commissioners. From left are Kyla Trotter, Commissioner Greg Koenig, Kaitlyn Hert, Tayler Felton, Wendy Bullock, Commissioner Justin Heath, Gabriana Loop and Commissioner Pete Olsen.
Five local students received Jim Regan Memorial Scholarships at the Churchill County commissioners meeting May 18.
The Regan Memorial Scholarship was established by the family of former County Commissioner Jim Regan, who died unexpectedly in 2000 while in office. The scholarship is awarded by the County’s Employee Management Committee composed of county employees.
Recipients must be Churchill County employees or the spouse, child or dependent of a county employee to be eligible for the scholarships which totaled $5,500 this year.
• Kyla Trotter is a Churchill County High School senior and daughter of Justice Court Judge Ben Trotter. She is a tennis player who currently serves as her senior class vice president. In high school, she has been recognized as a National Merit Scholarship commended student, an AP Scholar with Honors and is a member of the Nevada All-State Academic Team. She has served as a tutor, a part-time technician with Oasis Online, Girls Who Code instructor and a volunteer with the Churchill County Federal Credit Union. Kyla will attend the University of Nevada, Reno to study computer science.
• Wendy Bullock, an adult learner, works full-time in the county’s Court Services Department and is pursuing her bachelor's degree in criminal justice with a business minor at the University of Nevada, Reno. She volunteers as a youth soccer coach and runs the youth wrestling club and devotes 15 hours a week to youth volunteering activities.
• Tayler Felton, the daughter of County Assessor Denis Mondhink-Felton, graduates this year from Oasis Academy and will pursue a degree in equine business management at Tarleton State University in Texas. Ranked at the top of her class, she has served in class officer positions in each of her four years of high school. Outside of school, she bakes cookies for Meals on Wheels, cleans up trash around Fallon parks, participates in rodeos and trains horses for friends.
• Kaitlyn Hert, a senior at Oasis Academy, is employed at the Churchill County District Attorney’s Office. A current student at Western Nevada College, she plans to transfer to the College of Southern Nevada with dreams of becoming a diagnostic stenographer performing echocardiograms. She has been on the WNC Dean’s List for several semesters and participated in Nevada INBRE Biomedical Research projects. This softball player was her yearbook editor and served in several roles on student council as well as participated in the We The People program.
• Gabriana Loop, the daughter of Sgt. Paul Loop of the Sheriff’s Office, is a senior at Churchill County High with plans to attend the University of Nebraska at Lincoln this fall to study forensic biology. In high school, she qualified for the HOSA Leadership Conference and honor choir and participated on the swim and golf teams. She enjoys trap shooting, singing and working as a lifeguard.
