Aspiring automotive masterminds and nature preservationists are receiving a helping hand from Turn5, Inc. The parent company of online auto parts retailers American Muscle (AM), American Trucks (AT), and Extreme Terrain (XT) recently announced the winners of its bi-annual college scholarship program, where it awarded five students scholarships ranging between $2,000 to $3,000 a pop. 

First introduced in 2013, the essay-based program began with AM encouraging students to write about how they would “use their automotive education to drive change in the custom car industry.” With four winners being selected per semester (one each in 2020), an allotment of $2,000 for the winners will be applied to their spring tuitions. Josiah Dumitrescu from Kettering University and Olivia Larson, a high school senior with engineering program applications submitted to several universities are the recipients of this most recent AM prize. 

Meanwhile, an AT program that was created back in 2017 has provided students focusing on the construction and building trades with scholarship awards starting at $2,000, with two lucky youngsters receiving $2,500 for the first semester of 2020. These winners include Jesse Larson of Perry Technical Institute, and Kevon Smith from Fayetteville Technical Community College.

Moving on to the XT awards, you will find that while two $3,000 scholarships are typically awarded annually, $2,500 per person will be dished-out in 2020. To date, around $30,000 in scholarships has been awarded under this program, with Jordan Buslewicz from the University of Connecticut and Ms. Buslewicz being the most recent recipients, both of whom are pursuing a degree in Environmental Studies.

All told, Turn5 has awarded over $99,000 in scholarships to students since the program was first launched five years ago, with the brand constantly on the lookout for its next round of contenders. These can range from high school seniors to full-time university, college, or tech students seeking relevant degrees in fields of study deemed pertinent by Turn5 and its three subsidiaries.

“Ultimately, giving back to students pursuing dreams in the automotive, and other relevant industries (land management for Jeeps on ExtremeTerrain, and the trades for AmericanTrucks) is the perfect way for our company to support the enthusiast community we serve with our auto parts business,” Turn5 said in its recent press release.

Digging deeper into the ExtremeTerrain side of things, scholarships are gifted twice a year to students interested in Environmental Studies, Environmental Research, Land Use, Earth and Atmosphere Studies, Sustainable Land Management, Parks and Recreation, Sustainable Agriculture Systems, or a wide range of other related majors. 

Scholarship payments are sent directly to the winner’s school as a tuition payment, with the goal of the ExtremeTerrain Scholarship program being to raise awareness of the importance of preserving and maintaining the public lands for recreational use. 

“We support youth who are working towards a career in the environmental/recreational land use planning/land management industry, which in larger supports the movement to maintain recreational access to public lands,” Turn5 says. “ExtremeTerrain places an emphasis on community awareness and environmental awareness, and supports those who hold the same value system.”

Explaing further, Turn5 returns to its core belief of tasking off-road enthusiasts with the job of preserving America’s wilderness. “By investing in students and communities that share our sentiments on land preservation, ExtremeTerrain is investing in the future of not just the aftermarket off-road culture, but also the future of our sacred public lands.”