East Lansing, MI – Alivia Salenbien (below, center) of Britton Deerfield High School, and Elaine Gordon (above, center) were honored as recipients of the Michigan High School Athletic Association/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award at the 2024 MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals on March 16th at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing.
Shown with both Salenbien and Gordon are (from left): Mark Uyl, executive director of the MHSAA; and Don Simon, chief executive officer for Farm Bureau Insurance. Both girls will receive a $2,000 scholarship from Farm Bureau Insurance to be used at the institution of higher learning that they will attend this fall. Farm Bureau Insurance awarded 32 scholarships, proportionately by school classification, to students with a 3.50 or higher (on a 4.0 scale) grade point average who have previously lettered in at least one sport in which postseason competition is sponsored by the MHSAA.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.