GRAMBLING, La. – June 20, 2023 – Hunt Forest Products LLC has established a $100,000 endowed undergraduate scholarship at Grambling State University (GSU) designed to be distributed over a period of up to five years.
Named the Hunt Forest Products LLC Endowed Scholarship, candidates must be enrolled full-time at Grambling State, in good academic standing, majoring in either Engineering Technology, Computer Science, Accounting, or Management, have a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 grading scale; and have a financial need.
A Grambling State University Scholarship Awards Committee will determine the
process for evaluating and selecting candidates for the scholarship.
“Grambling [State] is an outstanding educational institution and it’s right down the street,” LeBlanc said. “We certainly have interest in hiring people who come out of Grambling either at our corporate office or at our new facility in Bienville Parish,” said Lloyd “Richie” LeBlanc, president of Hunt Forest Products. “That’s in Taylor, Louisiana. We’re building another mill there.”
Hunt Forest Products LLC, based in Ruston, Louisiana, was founded in 1978 with the purpose of providing quality products and superior service and manufactures a variety of plywood, lumber, and other specialty wood products to whatever specifications desired by its clientele.
LeBlanc said the scholarship is something Hunt Forest Products has been discussing, especially considering the proximity between the Ruston-based company and GSU.
“The Hunt family was interested in doing something at Grambling that we have not done in the past,” LeBlanc said. “Looking at it we realized it has similar disciplines that we support as we do at Louisiana Tech, so we decided that we’d like to create a similar type of endowed scholarship there. Our goal is to make a lasting difference by helping deserving students alleviate the financial burden of college while strengthening the relationship between Hunt Forest Products and GSU.”
As part of the scholarship, Hunt Forest Products LLC may provide an optional full-time summer internship the same academic year that the student is the recipient of the scholarship. LeBlanc said Hunt Forest Products hopes the scholarships could lead to more GSU graduates joining the company after graduation.
“We don’t have a lot of Grambling graduates working for us right now, but with the new facility being built only 30 miles to our west, that is certainly an increasing possibility of adding more GSU graduates to our workforce.”
“And that’s especially true should GSU graduates be from the local area, be it here or around the Bienville facility we’re building, because that would be a way to give back to the communities that support us as well.”