Urbana High School Graduate Honored with National Scholarship

Champaign IL

05 August, 2020

11:40 AM

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URBANA, Ill., – The Spherion Owner Community announced today that Urbana High School class of 2020 graduate Jaden Johnson is one of the two winners of its inaugural Excellence in Leadership Scholarship. The scholarship, created in honor of former Spherion President Sandy Mazur, highlights the contributions made during her distinguished 18-year career at Spherion. A recent graduate from Urbana High School, Johnson plans to attend Northern Illinois University. With a goal of creating a companion robot for children who are long-term hospital patients, Johnson plans to major in Mechatronics Engineering. Making time to tutor his basketball teammates and volunteer at various community events and food pantries, Johnson’s involvement in his community emulated Sandy’s same commitment to the Spherion community. Johnson earned an award for volunteering over 250 hours per year for the past two years and during his high school career, he created a permanent “Blessing Box” at C-U Church in Urbana that allows the community to put non-perishable food and toiletry items for those with food insecurity to pick up at any time for free. “Jaden represents the best of the qualities that Sandy possesses,” said Somers, owner of Spherion offices in Champaign, Rantoul, Charleston and Decatur. “We’ve been inspired by Sandy’s legacy and are delighted to be able to recognize the achievements of Jaden as he moves forward with furthering his skills at NIU.” The Spherion Owner Community, in addition to local Spherion owner Cindy Somers, coordinated with nonprofit The Richland County Foundation – which disburses grants for charitable organizations – to review over 220 applicants and choose the ten finalists. From there, Mazur and four other representatives from the Spherion Owner Community chose the winners. With the names and locations removed, the group of five reviewed the applicants and, solely based on their merits, selected Jaden Johnson as one of the two winners. “As one of the judges, we had some amazing submissions, but Jaden’s application was extraordinary,” said Mazur. “He truly embodies the mindset of ‘paying it forward’ and is a great example of leading by example. As someone who saw a need in the community and decided to fix it with a ‘blessing box’ similar to a community library, Jaden is in a class of his own. We are excited to see what he will go on to do in the future.” The annual scholarship honors two graduating high school students who best represent the qualities of excellence, leadership and passion that Sandy put forth daily during her tenure at Spherion. Her willingness to “go the extra mile” for others has inspired the network of owners to donate funds in her name, in order to celebrate graduates aspiring to further their education with college, technical or skilled training. In addition to Johnson, another winner was awarded, Ellie Furnish in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. For more information about the Sandy Mazur Scholarship or to make a donation, please visit: https://www.richlandcountyfoundation.org/donate/sandy-mazurspherion-excellence-in-leadership-scholarship.