NTHECC Scholarship Program

The NTHECC Scholarship Committee: A History of the Scholarship Program

The National Truck & Heavy Equipment Claims Council is very proud of the scholarship program which has evolved into a very successful and significant program. The Council, dating back into 1970’s, had recognized the need to participate in its professional community by providing some form of support to a student on an annual basis to assist in the pursuit of higher education. Over the years, the effort continued when there were available funds and a matching need by a deserving student.

From the early 1990’s, the Council came to realize the need to communicate their tenets and accomplishments to the broader community of specialty insurers and the truck and heavy equipment industry for a myriad of reasons. The primary reasons are to promote safety in the ownership and use of trucks and heavy equipment, to foster studies into the causes of highway accidents, to promote and develop a high standard of ethics in handling insurance claims, to combat crime, and to bring about wider public recognition and acceptance of the functions of the insurance industry. Additionally, the Council realized the need to take a proactive role in providing an opportunity to its members and their families to achieve further education. The concept of publishing a National Truck & Heavy Equipment Claims Council directory which would be published and distributed among those individuals and entities involved in the truck and heavy equipment industry nationally also came about during this time frame.

From the revenues generated by the publication known as the Membership Directory, the Council has been able to establish a scholarship committee tasked with the responsibility of distributing significant scholarship benefits on an annual basis to those applicants who are qualified through the application process to obtain scholarship assistance in their educational pursuits.

Between 1997-1998, the Scholarship Committee was established and policies were put into place to set allocations for annual scholarship awards, accept scholarship applications from all those eligible within the National Truck & Heavy Equipment Claims Council organization, and also award scholarships to those qualified applicants.

The first full year that the Scholarship Committee was in existence it awarded scholarships of $15,000.00 to six applicants. In essence, this was the beginning of the second generation of the NTHECC’s scholarship effort, which had been enhanced by the revenues produced from the Membership Directory publication. From 1998 to the present, scholarships have been awarded in excess of $771,000 for the purpose of education.

The types of further education pursued by the applicants varies and is as diverse as the applicants who have sought out these scholarships. Although the majority of the scholarships have gone to college students to assist in their pursuit of a Bachelor’s degree, numerous scholarships have been awarded for Masters and Doctoral programs. Also, there have been trade school awards, art and music awards, and one Maritime Academy award for an applicant who sought to become a merchant marine.

The National Truck & Heavy Equipment Claims Council is extremely proud of this program and intends to continue with this effort well into the future.