Kansas students receive prestigious Jabara Scholarships

Kansas high school students Andrew John Janzen and Spencer Dean Linville have been named the newest winners of the Fran Jabara Scholarship in Entrepreneurship at Wichita State University.

Linville and Janzen will receive $20,000 each over four years to attend WSU.

A resident of Lindsborg, Kan., Janzen attends Smoky Valley High School. He is planning to graduate in May and is already taking classes at Hutchinson Community College.

Janzen is class president at Smoky Valley and has served as vice president and president of Business Professionals of America. He is also heavily involved in theater, tennis, football and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

He has spent a lot of time in the community, most notably on the Greensburg tornado recovery and on a mission trip to Mexico.

Janzen already has a strong interest in business, winning several awards through Business Professionals of America. And three years ago, Janzen started his own company, called Photo in Five.

Linville lives in Douglass, Kan., and attends Douglass High School. This year he started taking classes at Butler Community College.

He has been president the past two years of his school’s National Honor Society branch, has been class president all four years and is student body president this year.

Involvement in the community is important to Linville, who has taken mission trips to Mexico, helped clean up Greensburg and cleared tree limbs for the elderly.

Linville is a motivated worker. He owns and operates Linville Excavation and is a laborer for three businesses.

Fran Jabara

Fran Jabara

The Jabara Scholarship is one of the most prestigious at WSU. It was established in 1998 and is named after Fran Jabara, former dean of the College of Business Administration at WSU and now principal of Jabara Ventures Group Inc.

Students receiving the scholarship were chosen in part because of their interest in majoring in entrepreneurship at WSU. Along with the financial benefits, winners also are mentored by Jabara during their stay at the university.