Creating Bright Futures Pella Rolscreen Foundation Announces Award Recipients

Pella Corporation’s founder Pete Kuyper had a vision to create a company that invests in the next generation, believing it would instill a sense of hope and purpose for their future. He cared about his team members and their families—making a point to personally give his employee’s high school seniors a $100 bill upon graduation. Today, his vision lives on through the Pella Rolscreen Foundation’s Sons and Daughters Scholarship Program.

This annual program recognizes outstanding high school graduates whose parents are Pella team members, and since its inception in 1979, has awarded 717 scholarships. Selection criteria includes academics, school and work activities, community volunteerism and essay responses. Recipients attending four-year programs receive $8,000 and those attending two-year programs receive $1,500.

In May, the Pella Rolscreen Foundation awarded 42 college scholarships to exceptional students as part of the Sons and Daughters Scholarship Program. The program offers scholarship opportunities to graduating high school seniors whose parents are Pella Corporation team members. This year’s recipients represented company sites in California, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and Michigan. A panel of external judges with college admissions backgrounds selected the recipients from a talented group of applicants representing nearly 50 high schools across 14 states; two of the recipients are first-generation college students.

In a nod to the bright future awaiting them upon pursuing a college education, a copy of Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go! is one of several congratulatory gifts sent given to the scholarship recipients by the Rolscreen Foundation. In the case of Kate Carpenter, a 2015 recipient of the scholarship, her college education landed her a spot on the manufacturing frontlines of the country’s fight against the global pandemic. After graduating from Purdue University in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in biological engineering and a minor in biotechnology, she went to work for a company that is manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.

“We are so proud of our daughter and extremely grateful for the Rolscreen Foundation and the role it played in our daughter’s academic success,” said Chris Carpenter, Kate’s father and Pella employee in Illinois.